Team of the Toad Sage
by Hirudoraaa
Summary: After failing his first try at graduation, Naruto is taught the Kage Bunshin no jutsu, enabling him to pass on the second attempt. However, Naruto and his team faces horror, hatred and deep secrets on their first chuunin exams, leading the Sandaime to put the team under one of the legendary Sannin!
1. Prologue

Prologue

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto or Sword Art Online.

Warning: Attempted rape.

-x-X-x-

A ten year old Naruto sat on top of the fourth Hokage's head, depressed after a failed early attempt at graduating the academy and becoming a genin. "Stupid bunshin no jutsu, if it weren't for that I would've definitely passed!" He grumbled as he gazed over the village he wished to one day lead as the Hokage.

"I agree with you completely." A voice said from behind him. Naruto looked back swiftly to find a plain looking man, a jonnin judging from his vest, standing there smiling at him.

"Who are you?" Naruto asked warily, well aware of the treatment he got from most of the village's adults.

"There's no need to be so tense, Naruto. I am here on good terms." The man said, extending his hand out, "My name is Nonemu Fumei." He retracted the hand after a moment when Naruto didn't take it. "It seems you are not trusting of me. That is understandable considering how you are treated." The man sat down beside Naruto, who immediately moved away.

"Perhaps I should just cut to the chase as to why I'm here." Nonemu said, looking at the blond who was now sitting far to his right. "I hear you failed the genin exam you took today because you couldn't pull off the clone jutsu. Is that correct?"

A look of surprise crossed Naruto's face before it became suspicious again, "Yeah, so?"

The man smiled, "I can teach you an alternate technique that will enable you to pass the exam, even if you can't master the clone jutsu."

At that statement, all the suspicion Naruto had flew out the window, overshadowed by the prospect of not only passing the genin test, but also learning a new jutsu. "Really?!"

"Hai. However, there is a condition you have to accept before I teach you the technique. No matter how fast you learn the jutsu, you must wait until next year's genin exams before attempting to graduate."

Naruto nodded rapidly, "That's okay with me!"

Nonemu smiled again, "Good, now, the jutsu is called kage bunshin no jutsu…"

-x-X-x-

(Time Skip)

-x-X-x-

"Nonemu, according to Naruto, you were the one who taught him the kage bunshin no jutsu." The Sandaime Hokage, Hiruzen Sarutobi stated to the man in front of him.

"That is correct, Hokage-sama."

"May I ask why you taught such a high level technique, a kinjutsu at that, to an academy student?" The Hokage asked, eyeing the jonnin.

"It was simply to help him pass the genin exam, Hokage-sama. I had done quite a bit of research on him before confronting him. With his massive chakra reserves, he would've never been able to master the clone technique that uses minimal amount of chakra. However the kage bunshin requires a large amount of chakra, making it the perfect technique for Naruto." Nonemu explained.

Hiruzen puffed his smoking pipe, "I see your points, but it was still a dangerous gamble. However, Naruto has already graduated using the jutsu, so there is nothing much that can be done now." He let out a small cloud of smoke before continuing, "You will be taking responsibility as Naruto's jonnin sensei. He is going to be put on Team 12, along with Kirigaya Kazuto and Asuna Yuuki. Since you've started already, teach Naruto what you can to help him survive. However, be sure to consult me before doing anything drastic such as the kage bunshin."

"Hai, Hokage-sama."

-x-X-x-

(Time Skip)

-x-X-x-

"I still can't believe you managed to convince Hokage-sama to let us participate in the chuunin exams held in Iwa, Nonemu-sensei." A girl with orange-brownish hair carrying a rapier sword said as she travelled through the forest with her team, heading towards Earth country.

"Hehe, well it took a lot of discussion, but since we both share the same ideals to make peace with the other villages, I was somehow able to convince him. And I truly believe that, even though you've been a team for just a few months, you are ready to take the exams." Nonemu stated.

"I still have a bad feeling about this though." A boy with black hair and a black sword on his back muttered.

"If you feel that uneasy about it, why didn't you just decline the offer, Kirito? Sensei gave us the choice you know?" Naruto asked.

"Well yeah, but I wasn't going to let a chance like this go just because of a little unease. Besides, if I had rejected, we wouldn't hear the end of your complaining."

"Hey!"

"Now now, we shouldn't be fighting at a time like this." The girl said, though she didn't look much worried.

"Asuna is right you two, you'll have to work well as a team during the exams. And remember, this is not just to become chuunin. Treat it also as a mission to calm down the tension between the villages. But that doesn't mean you shouldn't try to pass, so do your best!"

"Hai!" Naruto and Asuna exclaimed and Kirito gave a firm nod.

-x-X-x-

"Alright team, this is the room we'll be staying at until the end of the exams." Nonemu said as he opened the door of a room in one of Iwa's many inns. The members of team 12 entered the room slowly, all looking a bit down. Though you couldn't really tell with Kirito.

"The looks we received from the town's folk were pretty nasty…" Naruto said lowly as his thoughts wandered to similar looks he received elsewhere. He dropped his bag on the floor and flopped onto one of the beds.

"Well it is to be expected, but that is what we're trying to change here isn't it?" Nonemu asked when there was a knock on the door. He went and opened it to find an Iwa jonnin.

"Konoha Squad 12 jonnin leader Nonemu Fumei, you have been summoned to the Tsuchikage's office at once." The ninja proclaimed.

Nonemu looked back at his team, "It seems I'll have to leave for some time. Though it's probably just a meeting with the other jonnin senseis. I will be back as soon as I can, so stay here until then." The genin nodded as their sensei left with the Iwa shinobi.

'That bad feeling is back…' Kirito thought as he turned his attention away from the door and followed his teammates' lead in unpacking.

-x-X-x-

"Fumei-san has arrived, Tsuchikage-sama." The assistant said from the door.

"Send him in and leave us alone." Onoki, the Tsuchikage, commanded. Nonemu entered and went to the middle of the room before bowing.

"Mission complete, Tsuchikage-sama."

Onoki smirked, "You have done well, Fumei. As expected from Iwa's top spy."

"Thank you, Tsuchikage-sama. All those years acting as a Konoha ninja paid off." Nonemu said with a smirk of his own. "I presume everything is set for the final part?"

Onoki nodded, "I've made sure that they will pass the first round. The nine chuunin will be standing by during the second round for the orders."

"That is good, however are you certain you want to go through with it this way? We could use the beast's power for ourselves." Nonemu asked in somewhat uncertainty.

"No, that would be too risky. Besides, we already have two jinchuuriki of our own." Onoki clarified and Nonemu nodded in understanding. "Come chuunin exam second round, Konoha will lose its most powerful weapon!"

-x-X-x-

"Alright, let's review the test before moving forward. There are three towers in this mountain range from which teams can collect tags. One team can take only one tag from each tower. To pass, a team needs to get a tag from at least two towers and make it out of the mountains within 7 days. The towers are well hidden, so teams are allowed to take tags from other teams in case they can't find them. Does everyone understand?" Kirito questioned, to which Asuna and Naruto nodded. "Good, let's go!"

Team 12 dashed further into the mountains where the second stage of the chuunin exams was being held. They searched high and low for 3 consecutive hours but were not able to find a tower. They finally decided to rest for a bit and headed for a cave they came across earlier.

"It's to be expected that finding the towers isn't going to be that easy." Asuna commented.

"Yeah, but we have to keep trying! I'm sure we'll find one soon enough!" Naruto said with spirit.

"Of course, we're going to keep looking for the first three days. If we don't find two by then, we will-LOOK OUT!" Kirito ended with a shout as multiple kunai with paper bombs attached to them landed right in front of him. Team 12 managed to jump back fast enough to not get caught in the explosion. However they were still blown back by the force.

Naruto, Asuna and Kirito quickly got up to find themselves surrounded by nine Iwa ninja, seemingly genin.

"You managed to evade the blast. All the better I guess, we'll get to play with you Konoha pussies for a bit longer." One of them said with what looked like a mix between a smirk and a sneer.

"We don't have any tags." Kirito revealed, trying to get out of the situation without fighting.

"Oh? Sorry to disappoint you, but we're not here for those." The ninja who spoke earlier said before pointing at the youngest member of Team 12. "We're here for him!"

"What?" Naruto asked in surprise.

"What do you mean?" Kirito asked as he took out his sword, Asuna following his lead.

"Simply put, the shrimp is a danger to our village and needs to be put down right now!" The ninja proclaimed as all nine prepared for battle.

"Danger? I-I don't understand…" Naruto said slowly, now very confused. "If this is about the last war, then we don't hold a grudge against you. In fact, we want to make peace with you. Not just us, our sensei and the Hokage feel that way too!"

The Iwa shinobi stared at Naruto like he had lost his mind before bursting out laughing.

"Make peace with Konoha?! HA! Don't make me laugh!" One of them said after controlling himself a little. "Your Hokage is a peace loving fool! And that sensei you speak so fondly of, well let me tell you something about him. He's actually a spy the Tsuchikage put in Konoha for the purpose of getting you here!"

Team 12 looked utterly shocked by the statement, especially Naruto. "W-What? That can't be…"

"That's not all!" The Leaf genins' heads snapped towards the Iwa Nin who had first spoken. "The reason why we want to get rid of you so bad will come as an even greater shock for you! Are you ready?!" The ninja asked in a somewhat crazed manner, apparently enjoying himself. "You know the Nine-tailed demon fox that attacked Konoha? The Yondaime Hokage didn't slay it as most were led to believe!"

Now Team 12 looked very confused but at the same time afraid of hearing what was coming next.

"Fumei-senpai discovered a dirty little secret Konoha had kept hidden. For you see, the fox wasn't killed that night! The Yondaime deservingly died to seal of the monster inside a new born boy! And that boy was YOU! UZUMAKI NARUTO!" The Iwa nin shouted frantically. "That's right! The beast that almost destroyed your village 11 years ago is inside you! You are basically the monster fox! You are Konoha's greatest weapon to be used against other villages! That is why you have to be eliminated!"

Naruto fell to his knees in shock of what he had just heard. It all made sense. He didn't want to believe it, but it all made sense. The looks on the streets, the harsh treatment, everything. He had always wanted to know why he was treated so differently. Now he knew, but…

Kirito and Asuna, just as stunned, could only stare at him in silence, unable to say anything about what was just revealed.

"Now, take them." Kirito was the only one of team 12 who heard the order in their shocked states, but he was too late to react as two fists buried themselves in his gut and another hit him hard on the back of his head.

"Kirito-kun!" Asuna yelled as she snapped out of her mental state. However, she was also unable to do anything as another Iwa shinobi took her down from behind.

"Doton: Earth Binding jutsu!" One of the ninja called out. Small columns of rock rose from the ground and quickly constrained the three members of team 12. The one who had spoken first moved towards Naruto, who looked completely broken.

"We could just kill you now, but you had the gall to talk about "peace" between our villages after what your Yondaime did to us. And you remind me so much of that bastard it makes me want to puke. You will have to pay before you die." The ninja looked at Asuna as a nasty grin spread across his face. "And we can have some fun while we're at it. What do you say boys?" As his question was met with similar expressions from his comrades, Asuna's face turned to that of pure horror as she realized what they had in mind.

"No, please don't!" The jutsu caster made Asuna's bindings rise so that she was standing upright with her arms bound above her head. Her legs were spread apart and held firmly onto the ground. The supposed leader walked toward her, looking up and down her body.

"What are you…?" Kirito asked as he recovered from the earlier hits.

"You are very well developed for your age. It will make this all the more enjoyable." The Iwa nin remarked as he firmly grasped Asuna's top before ripping it off. He grasped the bindings she wore underneath and ripped them off as well, leaving her bare chested.

Kirito's eyes widened. "No, stop!"

"Please… stop…" Asuna weakly begged as tears started falling from her eyes. The Iwa nin responded by licking the salty liquid off her cheeks while starting to cackle manically.

"STOP YOU BASTARD!" Kirito shouted as he struggled against his bindings. The Iwa shinobi moved from Asuna's cheeks to her lips.

"I'LL KILL YOU!"

Down her to her neck.

"I WILL DEFINITELY KILL YOU!"

And further down below.

"Stop…" Kirito couldn't help as the tears formed in his own eyes. His head lowered as he couldn't bear to watch any more.

Naruto, whose mind had completely shut down after the revelations from the Iwa shinobi, slowly rose his head at the commotion near him. 'What happened? What's going on?' His recovering brain tried to focus on the figures he saw before him. However, when he regained his bearings and was able to make sense of his surroundings, what he saw made his mind go blank again.

At that moment, two crimson red eyes snapped open in the darkness.

"What the hell?!" One of the Iwa nin yelled as red chakra exploded from the blonde boy. Naruto's hair, nails and fangs grew longer; his irises turned red with slit pupils and his expression took a feral look. A bubbling cloak of crimson chakra formed around his entire body, the chakra extending in certain areas to form two 'ears' and a 'tail'. As everyone present stared at him in a fear induced frozen state, Naruto rose onto four limbs, the earth bindings destroyed, and locked his eyes on his first target.

'Shit!' The one with Asuna thought as he realized that the blonde's eyes were on him. But he wasn't able to form another coherent though as he felt a stabbing pain in his chest. He looked down below to see that Naruto's chakra covered arm had penetrated right through his heart, all the way out the back.

As Naruto retracted his arm from the Iwa nin, leaving a gaping hole in his chest, the others around him broke out of their frozen state. Three Iwa nin yelled for their fallen comrade and charged at the demonic boy. Four of them started running away in fear while the one remaining stood in place, unable to decide what to do. The jutsu binding Kirito and Asuna dropped and Asuna fell to the ground in a heap, her body unable to move, the expression of horror on her now blood covered face worse than before. Kirito also didn't move, but that was more due to Naruto's presence near Asuna.

The first of the three charging Iwa nin threw a fist at Naruto in blind rage. The punch connected with Naruto's face, however, the next second the arm he punched with wasn't connected to his body. The following scream didn't last long as a chakra covered arm blasted his head off his shoulders.

"Kuso!" One of the other two cursed as he and the ninja with him formed several hand seals. "Doton: Mud Rush Wave!" Both of them called out together, releasing a powerful rushing wave of mud from their mouths. The wave of mud crashed onto Naruto and hardened after it stopped. However, the Iwa shinobi didn't get a second to relax as the solidified mud started to crack. In the next instant, one of the ninja found himself impaled in a tail of bubbling chakra.

The remaining ninja's face grew in fear as his comrade was hoisted up as the tail went to remove itself, launching the corpse far away from them. He managed to look down right when a chakra claw grabbed his neck before crushing it, painting the ground in more red.

Naruto completely broke free of the hardened mud before sniffing the air. He let out an animalistic growl and dashed away. Kirito immediately got up and ran to Asuna. He took off his shirt and wrapped it around her naked upper body before embracing her in an attempt to comfort her. However no words were coming out of his mouth. He wanted to tell Asuna, who held onto him tightly, that everything was going to be alright. That they were going to get out of there and make it back home safe. But his voice just wouldn't come out. In the end all he could manage was to hold Asuna tighter.

It took about a minute for Asuna to calm down a little, giving Kirito a little more initiative to focus on other things. 'What should I do?' He thought, 'Should I escape with Asuna? In the current situation that would be the safest option. But is it the option we should take? Should we leave Naruto and go?' Kirito shook his head, 'No, we can't leave Naruto. Even in that state… even if he has the Kyuubi inside him, he is still our teammate. Asuna wouldn't want to abandon him and neither do I! Naruto is our friend!'

Kirito's thoughts ceased as he heard footsteps coming towards them. He looked to where the sound was coming from and found Naruto emerging from behind a giant rock. His chakra cloak was gone, but his appearance was still wild with red eyes. Kirito noticed one more thing that made his eyes go wide; Most of Naruto's body was covered in blood that wasn't there when he rushed away.

Naruto stopped near one of the Iwa corpses before looking around. Kirito tightened his arms around Asuna when Naruto looked their way. However, it seemed the boy wasn't currently after them as he turned away. His red eyes kept scanning around the area before finally halting on the remaining Iwa shinobi. The blond started to move.

The Iwa ninja was kneeling on the ground, staring at his dead comrades with a dismayed and defeated expression. Naruto walked over and stood over him. Another growl came out of the blood coated boy and he raised his claw like hand above his head.

"Naruto…" Hearing the whisper, Kirito looked down at the girl in his arms. Asuna was now looking at their teammate, who had become a killing machine right before their eyes, with desperation and denial in her eyes.

Naruto gritted his teeth and slashed down with his claws when a scream ripped through the landscape.

"NARUTO STOOOOP!"

Naruto's hand stopped a mere inch from the shinobi's skull. He slowly turned his head to look at the one who had screamed. Upon seeing the desperate and pleading expression on Asuna's eyes, his own softened and his arm went limp on his side. "Asu… na…" Naruto's eyes went back to their normal blue color as his entire body wilted and collapsed onto the ground, his mind falling into unconsciousness.

The Iwa nin finally snapped back to reality. The first thing he saw was the blond boy lying in front of him. A panicked yell escaped his lungs as he stumbled to get away from the monster who slaughtered his companions.

Kirito and Asuna were too focused on the blond boy to pay any attention to the fleeting enemy. Kirito felt a jerk in his arms and looked down to see that Asuna had started crying again. He raised his head and looked at the destruction around them. The corpses and blood made him sick to his stomach. 'Naruto… did all this…' He embraced Asuna closer.

That was how a certain sennin found them.

-x-X-x-

"So Nonemu was a spy huh?" Hiruzen Sarutobi asked. Three weeks had passed since Team 12's tragic experience in Iwagakure. The Hokage of Konohagakure was currently in his office, discussing about the event and it's outcomes with one of the legendary Sannin.

"Yes, my spies in Iwa have confirmed it." A man with long white spiky hair, the Toad Sennin Jiraiya answered.

"Hmm, one of my best jonnin turning out to be a spy is quite troubling. And it's too late to issue an assassination, too; he would have given Onoki all the Intel He had on us by now."

"I'm surprised, though, that the Tsuchikage hasn't acted on this already. Our jinchuuriki killed eight of their chuunin. I thought there would be more of a reaction from Iwa."

"Iwa is forced to sit back and accept what has happened without taking further action." Sarutobi started, "Even though technically 'Konoha send it's jinchuuriki to Iwa's chuunin exams and he killed eight of their chuunin', other circumstances restrict them. Their villages' chuunin targeting our genin during the exam is one thing. The other is Nonemu.

If Iwa goes so far as to declare war against us, or something similar of a lesser proportion, we have the ability of accusing Nonemu as a spy. To prove that he isn't one, Iwa would have to hand him over to Konoha. But they cannot do that since that would be handing all of Nonemu's info about Iwa to us on a silver platter. On the other hand, if Iwa keep him, or he coincidentally dies, it would prove that he was a spy, and the one to take our jinchuuriki to their exams. Thus, the cause of the conflict between the villages would be on Iwa's head."

Jiraiya nodded in understanding, "You really live up to the title of 'Professor', most of the time…"

Sarutobi caught the purposeful jab in the Sannin's statement. "I suppose it will take a while for you to come along."

"Of course! You sent one of our genin teams, and the one having Naruto at that, to a village we have had bad blood with since the last war! I still don't understand why you would do that! It was fortunate that you informed me of it at least. If I wasn't at the second exams location, I wouldn't have picked up the Kyuubi's chakra and there would've been no more Team 12 as of now!" Jiraiya berated in a bit raised voice.

"I know. I realize now that it was a mistake. I have failed to protect Naruto properly through his childhood, and now one of my decisions almost took his and his friends' lives." The Sandaime said with a regret filled face.

Jiraiya sighed, "Well, what's done is done. What we now have to worry about is Team 12's future. How are they doing?"

Hiruzen took a breath to compose himself before speaking, "Even though it has just been a few weeks, Kazuto is recovering very quickly through his rehabilitation. Though it will take some time for Naruto and Asuna to recover properly, especially Naruto."

"That is understandable I guess, considering what those two went through." Jiraiya said with a nod.

"Well then, about Team 12's future. What have you decided about the offer?"

The Toad Hermit closed his eyes and seemed to think it over, "It will be a bit troublesome to manage the spy network while staying in Konoha, but considering Naruto released so much of the Kyuubi's chakra at such a young age, I guess I have no choice but to keep close to him. And besides, as a godfather, I've been away from him for too long." He opened his eyes and grinned, "Alright, I'll become Team 12's new sensei."

-x-X-x-

(1 month later)

'Hard to believe it has been almost two months since then… And this is the first time I'll be meeting either of them since we came back to the village.' Kirito thought as he entered a training ground. He looked around and spotted a familiar face. 'Asuna!'

He slowly walked towards the girl. She was standing leaning her back on a tree, her head bowed down. She looked up when he reached her.

"Asuna… How are you now?" Kirito asked a bit hesitantly.

The girl smiled, "You don't have to be nervous, Kirito-kun. I'm doing a lot better now."

Kirito gave a smile of his own, "That's good to hear." There was a short pause before Kirito went to continue, but he was interrupted by someone entering the field from the woods. Both of them turned to see the third member of Team 12.

Naruto, upon catching his teammates' eyes, immediately looked down and started to walk further away. Kirito and Asuna looked at each other before going after the blond.

"Wait!" Asuna called out. The boy stopped in his stride, but kept facing away. The two stopped behind the blond before Asuna started again. "Naruto, about what happened-"

"I get it! Because of what I am and what I did, I understand if you guys don't want to be on the same team as me anymore."

Kirito sighed, "Look Naruto, we're not stupid. Yes the Kyuubi's sealed inside of you, but that doesn't make you the fox itself! The container is not the same as the contained."

Naruto whipped around to face them. "I killed those 8 ninja! And in such a way that only a…" He trailed off as he looked at his hands.

"But why did you do it?"

Naruto looked up at Asuna who had posed the question, "Huh?"

"Why did you do it?" She asked again, this time a bit slower.

Naruto paused for a second, "It was… because of what they were doing to you, but-"

"Exactly, you were protecting me. A monster fox would not do that." Asuna said firmly.

Naruto lowered his head for a moment before slowly raising it again. "Aren't you scarred of me?"

"Well, to be honest, we are-uff!" Kirito didn't get to finish as Asuna elbowed him in the stomach. The girl sent a glare his way before turning back to Naruto.

"Naruto, what Kirito-kun is trying to say is that, currently we can't say we're not afraid of what's inside you, but that doesn't mean we are just going to abandon you. We know who you really are. You are our teammate and our friend. A very good friend. We will be with you, always." Asuna said comfortingly. Naruto stared at the girl for a moment before looking at Kirito, who nodded with a smile.

"You two…" The blond whispered as his eyes turned moist. The next thing Kirito and Asuna new was that they were tackled down to the ground by Naruto who was hugging them tightly while sobbing. Kirito looked a bit uncomfortable where Asuna just smiled warmly and patted Naruto's head as the boy thanked them over and over again.

'They resolved everything fairly well by themselves.' Jiraiya thought as he watched the scene from the opposite woods. 'And I can practically smell their potential. It is going to be fun training them.' He grinned.

"Alright, Team 12 starts over today!"

-x-X-x-

A/N: Here is the prologue of the first story of my second account on ! Hope you enjoyed it, thoughts will be appreciated.

See you in chapter 1!


	2. Chapter 1: Chuunin Exams, 2nd try!

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto or sword art online.

A/N: Kirito and Asuna will be in their SAO game clothes from here on. Naruto's clothes consist of a short sleeved dark-blue shirt under a sleeveless orange hoodie, which is zipped open at the front. The hoodie has the red Uzumaki swirl at the back. Below are dark-blue pants and matching ninja sandals. Also there are bandages wrapped from his wrists to mid forearms.

-x-X-x-

(7 months later)

"Orange baka! Orange baka! Orange baka!"

"I swear I'm going to murder that bird." A certain blond haired, orange clad and extremely irritated ninja growled.

"Now Naruto, we can't have that. It is our mission to deliver this parrot to the Noble in Konoha after all." Jiraiya said as he held up the cage containing the parrot.

"But why do _we_ have to do it? Why can't that guy have his servants deliver it or something? This is a complete waste of our skills!" Naruto complained.

"Well, the parrot is supposed to be a family symbol of the noble. So it is understandable that he put it up as a mission for a genin team." Asuna explained while Kirito just looked on in amusement.

Naruto grumbled something under his breath. "I still don't like it though."

"Orange baka!"

"SHUT UP!"

-x-X-x-

"Man, that mission was more of a pain in the ass than our usual D-rank missions." Naruto moaned out as he exited the Hokage tower with his teammates after giving the mission report. Jiraiya had stayed back concerning important business.

"Naruto-kun, there's no need for such language." Asuna scolded, pinching the blonde's ear.

"Ow! You didn't say anything when that parrot was going at it!" Naruto complained.

"It was just calling you a baka. I don't see anything wrong with that." Kirito commented.

Naruto narrowed his eyes, "What's that supposed to mean?"

"Oh nothing, nothing. Anyway, Asuna and I were supposed to meet up with sensei after the mission. Let's go Asuna. Bye Naruto." Kirito said as he started walking away.

"Oh, right! See you later Naruto-kun." Asuna said as she followed Kirito.

"Bye!" Naruto yelled as he waved after them. He lowered his arm when they were gone and looked around. 'Now what?' He touched an envelope in his pocket that contained the payment for the mission. 'Guess I'll go get some ramen.'

Naruto started walking, the destination of Ichiraku's ramen stand in mind. As he walked, his mind wondered to Kirito and Asuna's Kenjutsu teacher. 'Come to think of it, I've never really met her. The only times I've seen her is during some of her training sessions with Kirito and Asuna. I wonder what she's like; she seems pretty nice while teaching. Maybe I should try learning Kenjutsu as well…'

His thoughts stopped there as his ears picked up what sounded like a scream from a distance. He looked to the front and sides before looking back, in time to see a familiar boy with a scarf around his neck running towards him at high speeds with two other kids in tow.

"BOSS, RUN!"

"Eh?" The kids dashed past him, and now coming at him was a very angry looking pinkette. "Shit!"

Naruto also started running like his life depended on it, quickly catching up to the kids. "Konohamaru, what did you do?!"

"We were just taking about who would be a good girlfriend for you when she showed up. We got into an argument with her and I ended up saying, 'Boss wouldn't go out with a big forehead, flat chested girl like you, if you even were a girl!' and now she's out to kill us!" Konohamaru explained frantically.

"Great! You've brought death upon yourselves, and you're dragging me down with you!"

"Sorry Boss!" The three kids exclaimed together. Konohamaru, who was in the lead, turned a corner and ran straight into a guy in a black baggy full body suit. Behind him was a girl with sandy blond hair gathered into four consecutive ponytails.

"Ow!" Konohamaru cried as he fell on his butt. Naruto, the two kids and the girl who was chasing them stopped in the face of the stranger.

"That hurt, kid." The person in black said.

'Who are these guys?' Naruto thought as he prepared himself.

-x-X-x-

"Next I will hear the recommendations of the non-rookie genins." The Sandaime Hokage said, after ending a little quarrel over the rookie genin. Several jonnin stepped forward. "Maito Gai, we will start with you."

"From squad 9 that I lead, TenTen, Rock Lee and Hyuuga Neji, I recommend those three for the chuunin selection exams under my name, Maito Gai." A ninja clad in all green said. Most of the other jonnin recommended their squads for the exams as well. The Hokage turned to the last remaining team leader.

"What about you, Jiraiya?"

The white haired Sannin stepped forward, "From the squad 12 that I lead, Yuuki Asuna, Kirigaya Kazuto and Uzumaki Naruto, I recommend those three for the chuunin selection exams under my name, Jiraiya." There were some murmurs following this. Iruka, who had spoken up earlier in concern for his former students, stayed quiet this time. But he still had a distressed look on his face.

"Alright, that concludes the recommendations. The application forms are available outside, dismissed!" The jonnin and chuunin present left the room while Jiraiya remained. "Are you sure they're ready?"

The Sannin took a deep breath before letting it out. "In terms of ability, they are more than ready. However, in terms of mental state, that is something for them to decide." Hiruzen nodded as Jiraiya also turned to leave.

'Then I hope they decide well.'

-x-X-x-

(Later that evening)

"Naruto-kun!" Asuna called out as she entered a training ground with Kirito. Naruto, who was already there, waved at them as they walked to him.

"We heard about your little run in today." Kirito said as they made it to the blond.

Naruto raised an eyebrow, "Konohamaru?"

"Yeah, and he's bound to exaggerate the events, so we want to hear it from you."

Naruto looked up and seemed to think a bit. "Hmm, let's see. I and Konohamaru's gang were being chased after by Sakura, a former classmate of mine. And I swear it wasn't me who caused her to come after us." He quickly clarified when Asuna gave him a look.

"While running, Konohamaru bumped into a Suna genin, who was with one of his teammates. The guy made a fuss about it and went after Konohamaru-"

"You didn't do anything drastic did you?" Kirito interrupted.

Naruto chuckled, "Don't worry, before I could do anything, Sasuke interfered."

Asuna raised an eyebrow, "Sasuke? You mean the Uchiha Sasuke?"

"Isn't he on the squad of Kakashi Hatake? I heard they recently failed a C-rank turned A-rank mission due to their client getting killed and one of the missing ninja they fought escaping" Kirito said.

Naruto nodded, "He was also a former classmate of mine. The rest mostly went between him and the Sand team, when their third member showed up. A redhead boy about my age with a gourd on his back, I think he was called Gaara. I got a very bad vibe from him."

There was a pause before Kirito spoke again, "Either way, it's good that nothing happened."

"What about this Sasuke and Sakura though? How did they react after seeing you in almost a year?" Asuna asked.

Naruto shrugged, "I doubt Sakura noticed at all that it was me, and Sasuke just ignored me. Probably didn't think I was worth his attention or something." He said with a wave of dismissal. Kirito and Asuna glanced at each other but left it at that. "Anyway, why do you think ero-sennin called us here?"

His question was met with a poof of smoke caused by the appearance of the said sennin on a tree branch. "Brat, I told you to stop calling me that!"

"I will stop calling you that when you stop acting like it!" Naruto retorted.

"Never gonna happen." Jiraiya claimed, jumping down from the branch. He went to his team before handing each of them a slip of paper. They checked the papers and all three realized what they were.

"You're entering us into the chuunin exams?" Naruto asked, his face that of slight discomfort which was matched by his teammates.

"No. I recommended you, but the final decision is up to you. You guys decide if you are ready or not. If you choose to enter, sign the forms and five days from now , get to the academy by 3pm and go to room 301. That is all." Jiraiya explained before leaving the same way he came.

A long silence filled the field, the three staring at the application forms, until Naruto finally sighed. "Why are we hesitating now? I mean, what have we been training for all this time?"

"True, we have been preparing for this moment for the past 7 months. We can't turn back now." Kirito agreed.

"Hm." A smiling Asuna nodded with conviction.

"Alright, we will face this exam head on, and this time we will definitely pass!" Naruto proclaimed with brimming confidence.

-x-X-x-

(Five days later)

"You're late, Naruto." Kirito stated as the blond arrived at the academy in a jog. Naruto rubbed the back of his head while apologizing.

"No matter, we still have time. So let's go." Asuna said and started walking. The boys followed her into the academy and up the floors. When they reached the second floor, they saw a genin in an all green jump suit get knocked down by another one.

"That's Lee. TenTen and Neji are there too." Asuna whispered and Kirito nodded.

"Putting up an act it seems. We're only on the 2nd floor after all. Just ignore it and keep moving."

"You guys know them?" Naruto asked as they walked past the scene.

"Yeah, old classmates of ours. They're strong, especially Neji Hyuuga who was the rookie of the year." Asuna explained.

'Hyuuga? That's the same as Hinata…' Naruto wondered of the possibilities as Team 12 went up to the 3rd floor. They reached the desired room to find their sensei standing at the door.

"So all three of you came," Jiraiya said, smiling at them, "well done, Naruto, Asuna, and Kirito. I'm proud of you. Now go in there and show everyone what the team of the toad sage can do!"

"Yosh!" Naruto exclaimed while punching his hand. Kirito and Asuna gave eager nods beside him. Jiraiya moved to the side and Team 12 entered through the door.

-x-X-x-

The members of Team 12 looked around the room at all the genin taking the exam. "Looks like this time it's going to be more trouble than last time." Kirito commented. "Well, no point in standing around, let's go find a seat."

Naruto and Asuna followed Kirito through the crowd to one of the corners of the room. When they were seated, Naruto glanced around before pointing at a particular trio. "That's the redhead I told you about. Be careful of him." The blond warned and the other two nodded.

After a few minutes the nine rookie genin from Konoha taking part in the exam gathered at the back.

"Hey Naruto, they're your classmates right? Mind telling us about them?" Kirito asked as he stared at the interacting rookies.

"Aah, well there isn't much to worry about, but I guess I'll just name them out," The blond raised a finger toward the genin, "The girl with the short blue hair is Hinata Hyuuga," Kirito and Asuna glanced at each other at the Hyuuga name but stayed silent. "The tallest guy with glasses is Shino Aburame, the one with the puppy on his head is Kiba Inuzuka.

"The black haired guy in blue shirt is Sasuke Uchiha, the strongest of them. The two girls fighting over him are the least to worry about, the pink haired one is Sakura Haruno and the blond is Ino Yamanaka. I don't know who the pale guy near Sasuke is, but the chubby one eating chips is Choji Akimichi. And finally, the tired looking pineapple-head is Shikamaru Nara."

"Ehh, is that an assembly of clan heirs or something?" Asuna asked as she put her chin on her hand. Just then a gray haired man approached the rookies. He talked to them for a while and showed them some kind of cards. Before long, the genin started to look nervous.

"Oi Naruto, looks like your classmates are losing confidence. Shouldn't you do something about it?" Kirito asked. The blond glance at Kirito before returning his gaze to the genin at the front. His eyes went to a particular girl who seemed the most nervous. He sighed.

Slamming his hands on the desk he was at, Naruto stood up from his seat and yelled at the top of his lungs, "Listen up all of you! My Name is Uzumaki Naruto! And I'm not going to lose to any of you! Got that?!"

"Is that Naruto?!" Kiba asked in surprise.

"What's with him provoking everyone? Is he still an idiot?" Ino asked.

'No, that's not quite it…' Shikamaru thought as he stared at the blond boy.

'Naruto-kun! You're here!'

"That's Naruto? Then back then that was…" Sakura trailed off as she remembered the boy she'd chased a few days ago. Sasuke just grunted and ignored the boy.

Naruto flopped back down onto his chair, "Ahh that felt good!" Asuna giggled beside him and Kirito cracked a smile as well.

Suddenly there was a large poof of smoke at the front of the room, gaining everyone's attention. "Quiet down you punks!" A voice shouted from inside the smoke. It cleared to reveal a scarred faced man wearing a black coat and several Konoha chuunin. "Sorry to keep you waiting. I am the examiner of the first test of the chuunin selection exams, Morino Ibiki."

The man paused to see if everyone was listening before continuing, "I might as well say this now; you are not allowed to fight each other during the exam unless given permission by the examiners. Even if the permission is given, you are not allowed to kill the other. Pigs who go against me will fail immediately, understood?" He heard someone comment this exam was too soft and easy, but paid it no mind.

"We will now begin the first exam. Turn in your applications, take one of these number tags and sit were the number tells you to." Ibiki said while showing the tags. "Then we will pass the papers for the written exam."

"Written exam..." Naruto muttered.

"You better not fail on us already, Naruto." Kirito said. The blond gave him a glance but stayed silent.

Everyone participating took a tag and sat down on their seats. Naruto scanned around to find his teammates further at the back.

"Naruto-kun…" The soft voice from his right caused him to turn.

"Oh, Hinata."

"Let's do our best." The girl said with a small blush.

"Uh, yeah." Naruto responded. 'She seems the same as before.' The examinee started to explain the rules of the first test. After he was done the test officially began.

'Those were some odd rules. And this paper is impossible to answer for normal genin, much less me.' Naruto thought while staring at the questions. 'There has to be something more to this, just like last time. Think Naruto, think! Deduction exam… two points lost when one is caught cheating… last question after 45 minutes…'

Naruto spent the first 15 minutes racking his brain trying to figure out some kind of hidden exam. To someone else's eyes, it would seem like the blond was getting worked up over not getting the answers for the questions. The same happened with the girl beside him.

"Ano, Naruto-kun." Hinata whispered, gaining the boy's attention. "I'll show you... my test."

Naruto turned to her in surprise. 'What did she just say?! She's willing to let me cheat off her paper? Why would she do such a thing for me? Wait a minute!' His eyes darted around, over the chuunin constantly taking notes on their pads. 'That's it!'

Naruto's eyes returned to his question paper. 'The two point deduction rule… we're supposed to cheat! This exam is to test our information gathering skills without getting caught!'

"Naruto-kun?"

The blond smiled, "Thank you Hinata, but don't worry about me. You don't need to show me your paper."

"But…" Hinata whispered as her eyes went to his blank answer sheet.

"It's alright, really. Besides, you might get in trouble for aiding in cheating." The girl flushed at the statement and murmured an apology before turning away. 'That's right; I can't have the person who helped me get the answer fail because of me. But…' He looked up with a distressed look, at the clock which showed less than 20 minutes remaining until the 10th question. 'How else am I exactly supposed to cheat?!'

Just then, a kunai whipped past his head and landed on the desk behind him.

"What's the meaning of this?!" The genin behind the desk yelled while standing up.

"You screwed up five times. You fail." The chuunin who had thrown the kunai said. "Teammates of his get out of here, right now."

That was the first team to be failed after being caught cheating 5 times. Several others soon followed. The seconds ticked by as Naruto tried to think of a way to get the answers. 'I can't use kage bunshin… kage bunshin plus henge? No… Gah! I don't have anything that can be useful in this situation. Well, kage bunshin would've been useful if I'd known beforehand about the test…'

"Okay, now I will give the 10th problem."

"Eh?!" Naruto's head snapped up at the statement. His eyes immediately went to the clock, which showed that 45 minutes had passed since the exam started. 'How the…?'

"But before that, there's one thing I must say…"

'Doesn't matter now! I haven't answered a single question; I'll have to bet it all on this one!'

Ibiki started explaining some rules regarding the 10th problem. Questions and concerns were raised by the participants about the rules, but the examiner stood by it. Soon enough, genin started to quit one after the other, taking their teams with them.

'It's no surprise. With the rule of losing the privilege of taking the exam forever if you get the answer wrong, most will lose their confidence.' Asuna thought before looking at Naruto, who seemed to be tensed up. 'I'm confident that I can get it right, and Kirito should be fine too, but Naruto…' She glanced at Kirito, who was looking at her from the corner of his eyes. He nodded once before looking ahead. 'Right, we will accept whatever choice you pick, Naruto-kun.'

Although she thought that, she was very surprised when the blond slowly raised his hand. 'Naruto!'

'Naruto-kun!' Hinata thought beside him, just as surprised. That is, until he slammed the hand down onto his desk.

"Don't screw with me! I'm not running away!" Naruto yelled, standing up. "Even if I stay a genin forever I'll take the question! I will become Hokage no matter what anyway! I'm not scared!"

Hinata smiled as he sat back down.

'Why did I even?' Asuna thought with a sigh, but smiled after. Kirito had a satisfied smile of his own.

"I will ask again. This is a choice that will impact your life. If you want to quit, now is the chance." Ibiki prodded.

"I never go back on my words. That is my Nindo." Naruto said firmly.

Ibiki glanced around, 'Interesting kid. He wiped away everyone's uncertainty. 78 students left huh? That's more than I expected. No point in waiting longer, it seems.' He looked at the chuunin and exchanged nods.

"Good determination. Then, for the first exam, everyone here… passes!"

-x-X-x-

A/N: That's the end of chapter one. I know it was very close to canon, but I had to make it that way to show how Naruto had changed through experience. Not to mention getting serious training under a Sannin. Things will start going differently from canon starting next chapter, plus the action will be begin too. And sorry if characters go OOC. I've been watching a lot of different anime lately, so keeping characters in character while regularly seeing so many different personalities is quite hard. I'll try my best though.

This took longer to update then I thought. I had finished this chapter last Friday but I couldn't get an internet connection. My relationship with pc internet access is quite complicated, don't ask why.

Anyway, hope you enjoyed this chapter. I'm always up for constructive criticism, just so you know.

See you with the next one. Ja ne!


	3. Chapter 2: Forest of Death

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto or Sword Art Online.

-x-X-x-

"Man, that 10th question was a big surprise. But it sure did save me." Naruto said as he walked out of the academy building with his team. The first phase of the chuunin exams had ended and the passing teams had been told to consult their sensei about the location of the next phase.

"You really didn't write a single answer?" Asuna asked from his right.

"Yeah, I spent almost half the time figuring out the true purpose of the test and the rest to find a way to cheat." Naruto said with a chuckle while rubbing the back of his head.

"I'm surprised _you_ managed to figure it out at all."

"Shut up Kirito! I'm not the kid I once was you know!" Naruto yelled.

"Yeah, you definitely have gotten a lot louder."

"That's it! I'm gonna-" Naruto wasn't able to finish as a blade was pressed to his neck in a flash. Kirito found himself in the same situation with a kunai.

"Knock it off, both of you." Asuna ordered.

"H-Hai!" The boys responded, a sudden excess of sweat rolling down their heads.

"Good. I'm glad we can come to an understanding." Asuna said cheerfully as she put the sharp objects away and resumed walking.

'Understanding…' Kirito thought.

'Always so scary…' Naruto followed.

"Come on! We have to find Jiraiya-sensei." The now far ahead Asuna called out. The boys glanced at each other before following the girl.

-x-X-x-

"Is he going to be alright? He got beat up pretty bad this time." Asuna asked with slight concern as Team 12 exited one of the hot spring houses in Konoha.

"He'll be fine; he's ero-sennin! And besides, he deserved it for peeping." A grinning Naruto said.

"True, what's important is that we got the location for the second exam. Now let's go home. Since this phase is probably going to be a survival test, we need to rest while we can." Kirito said and started walking.

Asuna also went to go but was stopped by Naruto. "Wait Asuna-chan, I wanted to talk to you about something." The girl looked at Kirito who nodded.

"I'll go on ahead." He said and left the two alone.

Asuna turned back to Naruto, "So, what is it that you want to talk about?"

The blond had an uncertain look on his face, "Well, it's about something that happened during the written exam. You remember Hinata Hyuuga?" Asuna nodded, "She was seated beside me. And during the test, she offered to show me her answers."

Asuna looked surprised at first, but then a smile formed on her lips. "Really now?"

Naruto rubbed his neck in an unsure manner, "Yeah. I don't know why she would do something like that for me. Hinata's not the type to prank someone, but Kiba and the others could've put her up to it, since she's somewhat a submissive girl. Still…"

"It seems you're not as ignorant as you used to be."

"Huh?"

Asuna shook her head, "Nothing. But about the matter at hand, how did you feel at the time? Without thinking about any probabilities, did you feel she was genuinely trying to help you?"

Naruto slowly nodded, "I think so, but why would she do it?"

"That's something you'll have to figure out yourself." Asuna said as she poked the blonde's nose and went to leave. "But don't stay up tonight thinking about it. Even with your monster stamina you'll need the rest."

"Hai…" Naruto muttered, not really listening to the girl.

-x-X-x-

(The next day)

"It's a little different from last time, but it still pits the teams against each other. Everyone's an enemy." Kirito said as he looked around. The teams that had passed the second exam were now gathered near training area 44 of Konoha; otherwise known as the forest of death. The examiner, Mitarashi Anko, had explained the rules of the exam earlier. The chuunin candidates were currently filling out consent forms given to them before they had to enter the forest. "But more importantly," Kirito turned to the boy snoring beside him, "Why is Naruto sleeping at a time like this?"

Asuna sighed, "He really did stay up thinking about it."

"About what?"

"Just something he really needs to understand. Anyway, looks like they will be giving out the scrolls soon. Better wake him up."

"Right," Kirito brought his face close to the blonde's ear. "Naruto, Jiraiya-sensei is going to eat all of your ramen again."

"Oh NO!" Naruto exclaimed as he bolted up. "Where's that perverted hermit?! I gotta stop him! Huh?" When he came to the realization of where he was he turned a glare at Kirito, who held up his hands in defense.

"Hehe, sorry but we had to get going." Kirito said, pointing at the stands giving out the scrolls.

"Fine." Naruto grumbled before yawning. Team 12 waited their turn and eventually ended up with a heaven scroll. They were lead to the gate they were to enter through by a chuunin. All the genin in the exam waited at their respective gates until the go ahead to enter.

Anko stared at her watch, which soon read exactly 2:30pm. "We will now begin the chuunin selection second exam!" All the gates opened simultaneously and the genin quickly dashed into the forest.

"So, what's the plan Kirito?" Naruto asked as team 12 sped through the woods.

"For now, we will keep heading in until we find a proper location. Then I'll explain what I have in mind." Kirito responded. The trio kept running for 15 minutes before they found a satisfactory place.

"The screams have already started." Asuna noted as they landed in a large clearing.

"Gather around, I'll explain how we'll go about this." Kirito said. When his teammates grouped near him he continued. "We will aim to finish this phase as soon as possible. After we leave here, we will use Naruto's Tajuu Kage Bunshin to search for other teams. Take any team that we are confident we can take and gather as many scrolls as we can. More scrolls mean we can get out of future situations without fighting, plus, lesser teams passing this phase will cause us lesser trouble later on. But no killing unless necessary, understood?" Asuna nodded while Naruto raised his hand. "What is it?"

"I need to pee."

They stared.

"What?"

Asuna sighed, "The bushes."

"I know, I know!" Naruto said as he jogged into the nearby scrubs. When he was gone, Asuna turned to Kirito.

"They will be coming soon. Naruto-kun won't be happy about being left out."

Kirito shrugged, "He's the one who had to go at this time."

-x-X-x-

"Ohh, got to Kage-pee." Naruto mumbled as he opened his pant zipper near a large tree root. He soon started relieving himself when he heard something. 'That voice, I've heard it before… that annoying voice…'

"Orange baka!"

Naruto's head snapped to where the sound came from. To his far right, he saw a familiar bird sitting on a small branch staring at him. "Aaaah! You're that damn parrot from our last mission!" He exclaimed while pointing an accusing finger at the bird.

"Orange baka!"

"Don't 'orange baka' me! What the heck are you doing here? Did you run away from your master like that demon cat or something?"

"Orange baka!" The same response came before it looked down. "Ecchi baka!"

"Eh?" Naruto looked down himself to see that his *thing* was still hanging out. "Gah! Don't stare at it you perverted parrot!" He yelled as he quickly put it back in and zipped up his pants.

"Ecchi baka!"

"Shut up! You were the one peeping on me in the first place!"

"Ecchi baka!"

"Alright that's it! Noble's family symbol or not, this time I will definitely murder you!" Naruto claimed as he rolled up his nonexistent long sleeves and stalked over to the parrot. However, before he could do anything, a commotion from where his team was caught his attention. 'Kirito! Asuna-chan!' Naruto completely forgot about the bird and hurried back to the clearing. The parrot just tilted its head and stared at the retreating orange back.

-x-X-x-

Naruto arrived back at the open field to find Kirito and Asuna standing over the unconscious bodies of three other genin. "What happened?" He asked as he walked over to them.

"My plan was successful." A smiling Kirito answered.

"Plan? But we haven't even…"

"Naruto, why do you think I picked such an open area to discuss our strategy?" The boy just looked confused so Kirito went on. "What would you think if you saw some genin standing around in the open like us?"

Naruto thought about it for a second, "That they are a bunch of amateurs, or…"

"That it's a trap. In this exam there are still quite a few, bluntly put, pathetic teams around. If one of them find us like that, they would immediately underestimate us. Any of the strong ones would at least wait and observe before attacking. However, one of the others would just come in for an 'easy kill'." Kirito looked down at the defeated ninja. "They got what they expected, just the other way around." He looked back at Naruto and showed him a scroll. "And we were really lucky this time."

Naruto's face brightened, "They had an earth scroll!"

"Yup! Now all we have to do is make it to the tower and we'll pass this phase." Asuna said.

Kirito nodded, "But there is a change in plans for the rest of the way. We will still use Naruto's multi shadow clones, but to avoid any confrontations instead of collecting more scrolls. From here we'll head straight to the tower at top speed. Let's clear this forest as the first team!"

"Hai!" Naruto and Asuna exclaimed.

As the team got set to leave, Naruto felt something land on his head. An annoyed look immediately appeared on his face.

Asuna pointed at his head, "Naruto-kun, isn't that…?"

"Yes."

"What is it doing here?"

"Peeping on me."

-x-X-x-

It had now been one day since the beginning of the second part of the chuunin exams. Team 12 had ventured further into the forest of death and closer to the tower in the middle throughout the day, while avoiding other teams in their path. Now they were resting and having "lunch" under a large tree while Naruto's clones kept watch for enemies.

"Why is that thing still with us?" Naruto asked in an annoyed voice.

"Well, for one thing we can't just leave it alone in a place like this. He'll die for sure."

'That's what I want.'

"And second, he seems to have taken a liking to me." Asuna said as she rubbed the head of the parrot on her shoulder.

"Come on, it's just going to be a burden for us. We should just ditch it before it becomes a hindrance to us passing."

"He's easier to handle than you are."

"You be quiet Kirito!"

"Naruto-kun, Rei is staying with us by both the leader's decision and majority vote. Even if you don't like it, you will just have to accept it."

Naruto grumbled before raising an eyebrow, "You named it Rei?"

"What? I think it suites him." Naruto sighed but opted to not say anything more, instead turning a glare at the cause of his frustration. They continued with their meal consisting of ration bars and some sort of fruit they'd found, which Naruto still wasn't sure they should be eating. But since Asuna, who was good at these things, had said it was okay, he went with it. Not to mention it was quite tasty.

As Naruto picked up another piece of fruit to get rid of the bad taste left in his mouth by the ration bar, the trio heard a couple of loud screams.

"That's close." Asuna noted.

"Staying here any longer could lead to trouble now. We'll be leaving immediately." Kirito stated and got up, the others following. Rei left Asuna's shoulder and took to the air as Team 12 jumped up to the branches and started moving. They didn't get far when Naruto stopped. "What is it?" Kirito asked, him and Asuna stopping as well.

The whiskered boy looked to his left, "One of my clones got taken out, by… something…"

"Something? An animal?"

"I don't know, but it was coming this way." Naruto turned back to his teammates. "What should we do. If it's an animal we can easily defeat it. Or should we outrun it and lose it? Guys?" He asked when he noticed their eyes were fixed behind him. He looked back himself to see something resembling an ape with crusts covering its body and limbs heading towards them at high speed.

"Doesn't look like we have a choice." Kirito said and took out his sword.

Asuna drew her sword as well, "What is that?"

"Whatever it is, I'm taking it down right now!" Naruto proclaimed and jumped to intercept the creature.

"Naruto, wait!" Kirito's call fell on deaf ears as the blond threw a few shuriken at the ape like thing. It held up its arms and the shuriken bounced off the crusts.

"That armor is strong enough to deflect shuriken eh? Then how about this?" Naruto slashed a kunai at the beast but it didn't do anything against the crusts. He kept going with no success as the kunai failed to penetrate. 'I have to aim for an unprotected place. There!' Naruto went to stab the knife into the left arm joint but failed as the beast's right fist buried into his side. 'Fast!'

The blow launched him to a neighboring tree branch. The beast jumped after but was hit midair by a ball of fire, causing it to fall to the ground below.

"We always tell you not to charge in without a plan, Naruto." Kirito said as he landed on the branch with Asuna.

"Yeah, yeah. But man that punch was strong. I think it cracked a rib." Naruto said as he sat up with a wince.

"Let me see." Asuna knelt down beside the boy and examined his side.

"Ow!"

"Yup, a few are definitely bruised. I'll have to fix them up." Asuna's hands started glowing green as she put them on the injured area.

"It's getting up." Kirito informed.

"Hold it off for a while until I heal Naruto-kun."

"Right!" Kirito dived down from the branch straight at the beast with his sword at the front. The beast crossed its arms above and stopped the sword cold. 'It can block my Elucidator?!' Kirito used the arms to place his feet on and leap off onto the branches again. The beast followed so he kept leaping, leading it away from Asuna and Naruto.

'It's fast! I can't just keep running.' Kirito thought as he dodged another punch. 'The enemy's not a ninja. Even simple tricks will work on it.' He stopped on a branch and waited till the beast came. It swung at the boy and hit him dead on, only for him to turn into a log, which got smashed into pieces.

"Katon: Great Fireball jutsu!" Kirito called from the branch behind and released a big ball of fire from his mouth. The beast was hit again, but it managed to stay on the spot. When the fire and smoke cleared, it revealed itself to be unscratched beside a few burn marks where there were no crust protections. "Tch!" The beast roared and leapt at Kirito, but was blown off to the side by a powerful gust of wind.

"Suiton: Liquid Bullet!" Asuna spat out a condensed ball of water which struck the still air bourn beast right in the chest. It crashed into the trunk of a tree fairly far from the trio, allowing them to regroup.

"Naruto, you okay now?" Kirito asked as he joined up with the blond and Asuna.

"Yeah, Asuna-chan patched me up fine as usual." The whiskered boy said while patting his ribs.

"Good, 'cause we're going on the offensive now. That thing's armored parts are very tough, so we should focus our attack on the unprotected places like the joints. However, getting close to it would be dangerous considering its strength. So we will try long range first. Naruto, we'll do the combo." The said boy grinned.

The beast started to move and appeared from inside the tree trunk. It searched around until it found its three targets. It pushed its arms and legs on the trunk and, using its strength, launched towards the genin.

"Asuna, slow it down!"

"Hai!" The girl exclaimed and rushed through three hand seals, "Suiton: Raging Waves!" A large amount of water gushed out of her mouth and swept over the beast. The technique succeeded in halting the beast's progress, but only temporarily. As the water died down, the beast set its sight back on its targets and rushed at them again. Though by then, Kirito and Naruto had already finished their hand seals.

"Katon: Great Fireball jutsu!"

"Futon: Great Breakthrough!"

Naruto's wind empowered Kirito's fire, creating a huge burning wall in the way of the approaching beast. It ran straight into the wall of fire and for a second, team 12 dared to think they had won, when it came right through the flames.

'Shit!' Was the only thought Kirito could have before the beast tackled his abdomen, taking him off the branch and down crashing to the ground.

"Kirito-Kun!"

"Kirito!" Naruto yelled and jumped down. Before he reached the ground however, the beast leapt up and collided shoulder first with Naruto, who disappeared in a poof. The beast landed on a branch and searched for its escaped prey while Asuna went down to aid Kirito. "Don't underestimate me you ugly ape!" Naruto shouted as he fell from atop the beast, "Tajuu Kage Bunshin no jutsu!" Fifty more Naruto joined in the fall and soon the beast had a shower of whiskered blonds on its head. The real Naruto landed away from it and jumped down while his clones kept it busy.

"Are you alright?" Naruto asked as he reached Kirito who was being healed by Asuna.

"I'm fine. That's enough for now, Asuna." Kirito said as he sat up. Asuna looked hesitant but stopped nonetheless. "Where is itnow?"

"My clones are dealing with it."

"Then we must finish it now." Kirito said, standing up.

"How exactly? Long range attacks didn't work, and you yourself said close combat would be very risky." Asuna asked.

"Yes, that is why I intend to finish it in one go. Naruto, you will have to use _it_." Kirito said and Naruto suddenly looked very excited.

"Wait, wait, wait! That in itself is very risky." Asuna protested.

"It will be fine as long as he doesn't exceed the time limit, which he won't. Right, Naruto?" He asked the boy in a forceful tone.

Naruto got the message and his expression became serious, "Don't worry, I won't exceed it."

"Good. You will use the technique to put the beast off balance. Asuna will commence in the follow up attack and I will deliver the finishing blow. Got it?" The two nodded, "Go!"

Asuna rushed forward and up the tree on which the beast was on the verge of finishing off all the shadow clones. Kirito held up his sword and muttered, "Sword Art: Ignition Blade." His sword started to glow orange and he followed after Asuna. Now the only one remaining on the ground, Naruto relaxed his stance and let out a breath.

"Gale Boost." He disappeared from the spot.

As the beast punched the last bunshin, erasing it from existence, the real Naruto appeared crouching behind it and in a formerly unseen speed, kicked the beast behind its knees. As its knees bent forward and body leaned back, Asuna came rushing in with her arm pulled back.

"Sword Art: Dozen Flash Strike!" In the blink of an eye, Asuna thrust her sword in twelve consecutive chakra induced strikes, hitting almost every unarmored place on the front of its body. As blood spurt out of the holes made by her rapier, Asuna ducked down and Kirito leapt over her from behind. The all black swordsman slashed once across with his glowing sword, cutting the falling beasts neck clean, beheading it.

Kirito landed smoothly on his feet as the detached head fell down to the ground. "It's finally over."

Asuna let out a weary breath and fell to her knees, "I'm exhausted! The water jutsus, healing and the Flash Strike depleted most of my chakra." She said before looking at the bleeding body in front of her. "I'm never getting used to this part of being a shinobi, though."

"You shouldn't," Asuna looked up at Naruto who walked up to her, "If we get used to killing and don't feel anything about it, then we wouldn't be human would we?" He asked while putting out his hand. Asuna smiled and took it to get back up.

"Your words sometimes surprise me, Naruto." Kirito said.

The blond looked over his shoulder at the swordsman, "Same for me with your compliments."

"Hm."

Naruto looked down at the corpse at his feet, "But just what is this anyway? It doesn't look like a normal animal to me."

Kirito nodded, "Its movements were more human like as well. I think we should get the body to Hokage-sama, or at least Jiraiya-sensei." He took out a scroll from his back pouch. "Naruto, go seal the head." The boy nodded and jumped down. Kirito unrolled the scroll next to the corpse and did a couple of hand signs. The body disappeared in a poof of smoke and a seal appeared on the scroll. He rolled it up and placed it back on his pouch.

"Can you keep going?" Kirito asked Asuna when Naruto came back.

"Sorry, but I think I need to rest for a while." The girl said with a tired apologetic look.

Kirito nodded. "Alright, we'll find a place to rest before heading to the tower again." He approached Asuna and, to her and Naruto's surprise, lifted her onto his arms bridal style.

"K-Kirito-kun! I said I needed to rest but I can still move on my own!" The now blushing Asuna exclaimed.

"I'm not taking any chances." Kirito said before jumping off the branch. Naruto just chuckled and followed after.

-x-X-x-

A/N: There you have it! Chapter 2 and the first real fight scene. Hope you liked it! If not, tell me what I did wrong.

See you with the next one!


	4. Chapter 3: Preliminaries!

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto or Sword Art Online.

-x-X-x-

"Ahh, finally made it!" Naruto breathed out as Team 12 reached the tower in the middle of the forest of death. "We didn't run in to any more trouble after the monkey thing, and that bird didn't show up after either! It couldn't have ended better!"

"I hope he's alright." Asuna voiced her concern while looking back at the forest.

"Nothing we can do about it, though. So let's just finish this." Kirito said and started walking towards one of the doors of the tower.

"Yes, yes, nothing we can do about it. Now you're speaking my language Kirito!" Naruto said cheerfully as he followed the older boy.

"You guys are so inconsiderate." Asuna mumbled.

-x-X-x-

"This is where we're supposed to stay until the five days are up." Asuna said, entering a room appointed to them in the tower.

"Uhh, waiting until the next round is such a bummer!" Naruto moaned and slumped on one of the beds in the room.

"I personally don't like it either, but this is what we get for finishing the phase with almost four days to spare." Kirito said. "Oh well, at least it gives us time to consult Jiraiya-sensei about the body. We can do it after we freshen up and eat. There is a bathroom here right?"

Asuna opened one of the doors in the room, "Yeah, it's right here."

Naruto sat up on the bed, "Oh, I think I saw a cafeteria on our way here. Let me see if I can grab some food for us." He said and rushed out of the room.

"Oi, Naruto!" Kirito's call was met with the slamming of the door. 'That guy… he did that on purpose…' he thought while turning to the only other occupant of the room, who was looking back at him. They both just stared at each other in a somewhat awkward silence, until Kirito coughed.

"Umm, why don't you use the bathroom first while I, uh, check this place out?" He said and quickly exited the room. Asuna stared at the door before giggling and going to do what the boy suggested.

Meanwhile, Kirito let out a breath outside the door. 'Darn that Naruto. He always does these kinds of things with other people, but when it comes to his own matters he's so oblivious. I pity whoever falls for him… If anyone _can_ fall for him…' He sighed. "Well, no point in standing around. Might as well check the place out like I said. Maybe I should try to find that cafeteria Naruto mentioned."

The swordsman wondered around the building for a few minutes before he was successful in finding the canteen. However, his energetic teammate was nowhere to be found. "Where did he go? Naruto alone in a place like this could cause problems I do not want to deal with."

"Is this 'Naruto' that loud mouth blond who was with you?" A voice asked from behind him.

Kirito turned around to find a grinning girl with sandy blond hair gathered in four ponytails. 'She's the girl from _that_ guy's team.' "And who might you be?"

"Right, I should introduce myself. The name's Temari, from Sunagakure as you can see." She said while jabbing her thumb at her forehead protector. "What about you?"

"Kirigaya Kazuto." Kirito simply stated. "You haven't happened to see that loud mouth blond around here have you?"

"Nope, and I'm not interested in him either. The one I'm interested in is you." Temari said while leaning in close to the boy, who leaned back. "You look quite strong; the fact you're here already is proof of that. And that's a nice sword you got there. Though I doubt it'll be any good against my weapon." She said while patting the metal object on her back.

"If you go on assuming things like that it'll cost you."

Temari chuckled, "Don't worry, I can tell you aren't someone against whom I can let my guard down."

"I wasn't referring to only myself." Kirito said as he started walking past her. "You said you were not interested in Naruto, meaning you do not think he'll be a strong opponent." He stopped and turned his head back. "Underestimating Naruto is not a wise thing to do."

Temari just looked on as Kirito turned back and left. 'He is definitely strong, but the loud brat..?' She smirked, 'Doesn't matter though. I might have some trouble, but no one can stand against Gaara. Not even you, Kirigaya Kazuto.'

-x-X-x-

"So, why did you want to meet with me?" Sarutobi Hiruzen asked from behind the desk he was seated on. The Hokage of Konohagakure was currently in a room of the tower in the forest, the other occupants being two ANBU, Jiraiya of the Sannin and the members of his genin squad.

"Well, my genin said they had something important to consult you about. I've been busy until now so even I don't know yet. So guys, what's this about?" Jiraiya asked his squad.

The genin looked at each other before Kirito spoke, "When we were in the forest, there was this thing that attacked us. It didn't look like any animal any of us have seen before, and its movements were more human like than a beast."

Jiraiya and Hiruzen glanced at each other. "What happened to it?" The Hokage asked.

"We managed to kill it, and we have the body with us, Naruto." The boy nodded and walked over to the Hokage's desk. He unrolled a scroll over it and did a hand sign.

"Release!" Smoke appeared over the scroll and when it cleared, what they saw startled everyone in the room. "THE HELL?!" Naruto yelled as he stumbled a few steps back. On top of the scroll, instead of the ape like face he was expecting, was an actual man's head.

"Naruto, what is the meaning of this?!" The Hokage asked.

"That wasn't… I swear it wasn't like that when I sealed it! It looked like a gorilla thingy!" Naruto tried to explain frantically.

"That's a human head no matter how you look at it." Jiraiya said from beside him.

"But it wasn't like that when we fought it… him… Gah! Wait," He looked at his teammates whose faces showed shock and confusion. "Kirito, what about the body?"

"Oh, right!" Kirito took out a scroll of his own and went through the same process as Naruto, but on the floor. When the smoke cleared, before them was a headless man's body. "How…?"

"Alright you three, give me a full explanation of what happened. Do not leave anything out." Hiruzen demanded. The genin started telling their leader about how they encountered the beast, fought it and killed it. After they finishing telling their tale, Hiruzen stared at them for a good thirty seconds, making them very uncomfortable under the old shinobi's gaze.

"Okay, I believe you." He finally said and the members of team 12 sighed in relief. "All three of you are dismissed for now. The body will be taken by the ANBU for examination. If you are needed for anything, you will be informed. Besides that, just focus on the exam."

"Hai!" The genin exclaimed and left the room with their sensei. Once they were outside, Jiraiya turned to them.

"You guys did a good job with the body and all. Keep that up and you just might become chuunin this time around." The toad hermit said. Asuna smiled brightly and thanked him while Naruto and Kirito grinned. "Now if you'll excuse me, I've got important business to take care of!"

"Does this 'important business' involve one of the hot springs?" Naruto asked with a raised eyebrow.

"Nope!" Jiraiya said, quite proudly for some reason.

Naruto looked genuinely surprised, "Really?"

"Yeah, because I've discovered a waterfall where a group of hot kunoichi come to bathe regularly. They should be there by now, so see ya!" The perverted Sannin said and disappeared in a poof.

The members of team 12 just stared at the dispersing smoke before all three sighed together. "He's never going to change, is he?" Asuna asked.

"He could've at least given us some info about the third phase before leaving." Naruto said with an annoyed look.

"No can do."

"Gah!" Naruto exclaimed and scrambled forward. He looked back to see that Jiraiya had reappeared behind him.

"Giving genin information about the exams is against the rules you know. And here," The toad hermit threw a frog shaped wallet at Naruto, who promptly caught it. "I borrowed Gama-chan earlier and forgot to return her, so I came back to do that." He explained before leaving again.

Naruto looked inside his very much empty wallet with a devastated expression while Kirito and Asuna poked their heads over his shoulder. "G-G-Gama-chan! That lecherous old man molested you again! I swear on the coins I keep inside you, this time I will avenge you! You hear me ero-sennin?! YOU WILL PAY FOR THIS!"

"Aren't you getting a little too dramatic over this?" Asuna asked with a sweat drop.

"Well, I can somewhat understand why he's feeling that way. Naruto shares a special relationship with Gama-chan, since he's not capable of having a real one with an actual girl." Kirito claimed, however the mentioned boy wasn't listening.

"Come on, we'll find that ero-sennin and throw him right into the waterfall with the kunoichi. That'll be the end of him for sure!" The vengeful blond proclaimed and started stalking off.

"Oi!" Kirito grabbed Naruto's hood and pulled him back, "We aren't allowed to leave the tower until authorized, remember?"

"Oh, right! Then we shall have our vengeance later! Until then, let's go think of ways to pay him back Gama-chan." Naruto started walking again, but this time much more calmly and towards their room.

Kirito sighed after the blond, "That Naruto…"

"But it is nice to see him just being himself." Asuna said, moving up next to him.

"Aren't you the one who just said he was being too dramatic?"

"Point."

-x-X-x-

(4 days later)

Mitarashi Anko, the examiner of the second phase of the chuunin exams sat on a couch, clutching between her left shoulder and neck, were there were three black tomoe marks. Behind her there were two chuunin, and beside her was the Hokage himself. There were monitors in front of her, through which she received reports from chuunin staff of the exam.

"How are you feeling? Does the cursed seal still hurt?" Hiruzen asked.

"No, it has gotten better thanks to you." Anko said and covered the mark with her coat.

"Isn't Orochimaru one of the Sannin from Konoha legends?" One of the chuunin, Izumo Kamizuki asked. "He's an S-ranked exiled ninja from the bingo book that even the ANBU couldn't deal with, right? I heard that he died, but…"

"Why would he come to this village now?" The second chuunin, Kotetsu Hagane wondered.

At that question, Anko remembered what the Sannin in discussion had said to her in the forest of death.

"There's a boy I want. He's the boy who carries the abilities of the Uchiha."

A particular genin came to her mind, "It's most likely because…"

"Sasuke, right?" Sarutobi asked and Anko looked up, confirming his suspicion. He took out the pipe he was smoking from his mouth and breathed out a cloud of smoke. "There is something you should know. One of the teams that made it out of the forest brought a body of a man with them. They claim he was some sort of monster when they killed him, and that they didn't know how it turned into a man." Anko looked both curious and confused at his words. "The man had a cursed seal on his back."

Anko's eye's widened before they narrowed as she gritted her teeth. "That bastard, what is he up to…?"

Just then, a chuunin appeared on one of the monitors, gaining everyone's attention. "Anko-sama, we have confirmed that 24 people passed the second exam. According to chuunin regulations, we will have to do preliminary matches for the first time in five years. Second exam, completed."

A silence settled over the room, and Anko particularly looked very surprised.

"Anyway, we will continue with the exam." Hiruzen broke the silence. "But we will see what he is up to at the same time."

"Hai…" Anko mumbled.

-x-X-x-

All the genin passing the second stage of the chuunin selection exams were now gathered in some sort of an arena with a huge ram hand seal made of stone. The Jounin, plus one Sannin, senseis of the passing teams were in front of the stone hands. The Hokage, Morino Ibiki, Mitarashi Anko and a few other Konoha shinobi were there as well.

"First off, congratulations on passing the second exam." Hiruzen spoke.

'Out of the 26, only 8 teams passed huh?' Kirito thought while looking around the collected genin.

'All of the rookies from Konoha are here! "Not much to worry about" eh Naruto?' Asuna thought towards blond, who was preoccupied in watching two particular jonnin.

Anko got the attention of the genin for the Hokage to speak. Sarutobi Hiruzen stepped forward and began explaining the true purpose of the chuunin exams, which was 'the epitome of war between the allied Nations'. Questions and complaints came from the genin over the enlightenment, but by the time the Hokage was finished, they seemed to understand how things worked, more or less.

"I don't care. Tell us the details of this life-or-death exam." Gaara of the Sand demanded.

The Hokage nodded and went to speak again when a kneeling jonnin appeared before him. "Excuse me Hokage-sama. Allow me, Gekkou Hayate, the judge, to explain."

"Please do."

Hayate stood and turned to genin. After introducing himself to them, he revealed that they had to fight in preliminary matches to determine who gets to advance to the finals. The reason he explained, through fits of coughs, was because of the guests coming to the final round. There were too many genin and too little time, thus the numbers had to be cut in half. Further, he announced, again through a fit of coughs, that the matches will begin immediately, and advised that those who weren't feeling well should forfeit now.

About a minute passed with no one quitting. There was a little squabble between Anko, a silver haired jonnin and the Hokage, which settled soon enough. Ultimately, one hand went up from the genin, belonging to a glasses wearing, grey haired man. "Umm, I'll quit." He said with a smile.

"Uh, let's see," Hayate coughed and flipped up one of the paper sheets in his hands. "You are Konoha's Yakushi Kabuto-kun? You may leave then."

"Hai." The 'genin' left the arena as instructed after exchanging a few words with his teammates.

"May I assume there are no more people who wish to retire?" Hayate asked. No one answered for a while so he continued. "Then, we will begin the preliminary matches. It'll be one-on-one matches, like real combat." He looked back at Anko, who nodded. A stone plate on the front wall went up to reveal a large monitor.

"This electric bulletin will randomly display the names of the fighters for each match." Hayate continued, and coughed. "Since there are now 23 people remaining, there will be 11 matches. The winners will advance to the third exam, as well as the remaining one who go through by default."

"Wait a minute! So one of us just gets a free pass while all the others have to fight?!" Kiba Inuzuka asked.

"Yes. Luck plays a great part in the life of a ninja. There are several points were whether a shinobi lives or dies is decided on luck. This is a similar matter. The matches are decided randomly, so the remaining one is simply lucky." Hayate explained, ceasing any more questions. He proceeded with the rules of the match and how the winner will be decided.

"Without further ado, I will now display the names for the first match." The genin looked on as names started flashing through the screen. It stopped to reveal the names of Akadou Yoroi and Uchiha Sasuke.

"Those whose names were displayed, step up. Others go up there." Hayate said and pointed at the railings. As the two fighters faced each other and the rest of the genin went up, Hayate raised his arms. "We will now begin the first match."

-x-X-x-

"Hey there gakis." Jiraiya greeted as he appeared near his team on the railings.

"Hey ero-sennin! I can't believe you actually came. Isn't this you regular pe-mhpf!" Naruto was unable to say any more as his mouth was swiftly covered by the Sannin.

"Not here brat!"

"Anyway, the Uchiha is fighting. Shouldn't you pay attention, Naruto?" Kirito asked.

"Hmffp?" The still mouth bound Naruto asked and directed his eyes down at the fighters. Jiraiya saw his change in attitude and let go. The blond and Sannin joined everyone else in watching the fight about to ensue. 'Let's see how much stronger you have gotten, Sasuke.'

Match #1: Akadou Yoroi vs Uchiha Sasuke.

Sasuke seemed to be in trouble early on in the match. Yoroi had shown a special ability of being able to drain Sasuke's chakra through his hands. However, the Uchiha had managed to turn things around using his own version of a move he'd copied from Rock Lee. A combination of Taijutsu attacks that didn't require the chakra he didn't have; The Lion Combo.

Winner: Uchiha Sasuke.

After the match, Hatake Kakashi took Sasuke away for reason most didn't know. Before long, the bulletin started to go through names again.

Match #2: Zaku Abumi vs Aburame Shino.

It's safe to say that the fight was controlled by the Aburame clan heir. At first, it seemed that Zaku couldn't use any of his bandaged arms. However, he used his left one from the beginning. He had the ability to release strong blasts of pressurized air from holes in his hands. But that didn't do much against Shino, who had the sound ninja cornered soon enough, forcing him to somehow use his right arm as well. Though it didn't go well for him. Shino had already ordered his bugs to block the air holes in his arms, leading them to explode under unreleased pressure when Zaku tried to execute his air blast.

Winner: Aburame Shino.

Before the fighters for the next match were revealed, Hatake Kakashi joined back with his team.

Match #3: Tsurugi Misumi vs Kankurou.

Tsurugi Misumi was the last member of the team with Yakushi Kabuto and Akadou Yoroi. During the match, he showed to have a rather eerie ability of being able to take his joints off their hinges and control his loosened body with chakra. He had trapped Kankurou in a hold at one point and threatened to snap his neck, which he carried out when the Sand ninja didn't quit. However, 'Kankurou' turned out to be a puppet, with the real one hiding in the wrapped up bundle he had dropped earlier. The fight soon ended when the black clad genin used the puppet to crush Misumi's bones.

Winner: Kankurou.

Match #4: Haruno Sakura vs Temari.

The match was quickly decided as Sakura, even with thinking thoroughly and using her minimum resources efficiently, wasn't a match for Temari and her large fan she used for futon jutsu.

Winner: Temari.

Match #5: Hyuuga Neji vs Yamanaka Ino.

Ino wisely quit after taking the advice of her sensei.

Winner: Hyuuga Neji.

Match #6: Nara Shikamaru vs Kin Tsuchi.

Kin used senbon needles with bells attached to them to cast a genjutsu on Shikamaru, while avoiding the Nara's shadow manipulation technique. However, Shikamaru took advantage of the strings Kin used to move the bells and captured her with his shadow. After that, he showed a little of his high intellect, along with great awareness of his surroundings, to knock out the Sound kunoichi.

Winner: Nara Shikamaru.

"Huh, Shikamaru's pretty smart." Naruto muttered while leaning against the railing.

"What do you mean? Wasn't he always like that?" Asuna asked as the bulletin started flashing again.

"He was among the bottom of the class in academics. I guess that was because he always slept through the exams…"

"Naruto, I don't think you have time to worry about that." Kirito said and pointed at the screen. Naruto and Asuna looked at the bulletin, and a grin broke through the blond boy's features over the names displayed.

Uzumaki Naruto vs Inuzuka Kiba.

-x-X-x-

A/N: YAPPAAAAH! 5 days; the fastest I've finished a chapter! (Nothing to be proud of, though). Yes, this isn't my first story. I've written one other before on a separate account. I'm sure I've mentioned it before. The story isn't there anymore, in case you're wondering.

So, nothing much happened in this chap, but the members of Team 12 will be in action in the next one. Sorry if anyone wanted someone else as Naruto's opponent, this is how I needed it to be.

Anyway, I hope you enjoyed the chapter. See you with no.4!


	5. Chapter 4: Naruto's Growth

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto or Sword Art Online. *Sigh*

-x-X-x-

"Ohh! Looks like we lucked out, Akamaru. We can win against him for sure!" Kiba said with confidence and his little white dog barked in agreement.

Yuuhi Kurenai, Kiba's Jonnin sensei, looked at her student's adversary, then at his sensei. "Don't be too rash, Kiba. Your opponent has had one of the legendary Sannin to train him."

"Tsk, this is Naruto we're taking about; the dead last of the academy! Even if he were trained by the Hokage himself, it would take a decade before he can beat me!" Kiba proclaimed and jumped down to the floor.

"Seems like we still need to work on that overconfidence of his." Shino commented while Kurenai sighed. No one noticed the distressed look on Hinata's face.

"Finally My turn!" Naruto exclaimed in excitement.

"Do your best, Naruto-kun!" Asuna encouraged.

"Don't lose, Naruto. After all, I want to fight you in the finals." Kirito said with a smirk. Naruto looked surprise at first, but then grinned.

'You've always had at least one of us with you during battles. Now, let's see how much you've grown, in a fight on your own.' Jiraiya thought as the blond jumped down.

"Seventh match; Uzumaki Naruto vs Inuzuka Kiba." Hayate announced as the two participants faced each other.

"Finally, I get to show off what I can do." An excited Naruto said.

"That's my line! Having you as an opponent means I've practically won." Kiba claimed as he put his dog down.

"Heh, don't go assuming things. It'll cost ya."

'That's…' Temari looked up from the floor, at a black clad swordsman.

"Acting though eh?" Kiba grinned. 'I don't know how much stronger he's gotten in the past year, but considering his original skills…' "Fine then, I'll show you that I'm not just assuming. I'll end this with one hit." He formed a hand seal. 'Beast Mimicry: Four Legs technique!'

The Inuzuka got down on all four limbs as chakra started leaking from his body. His nails elongated and sharpened. The next moment, he dashed at Naruto in high speeds, elbowing the blond in the chest and sending him tumbling back.

'He's fast!' Asuna thought. Down on the floor, Kiba proclaimed apparent victory and started walking away. She heard murmurs from the shinobi watching; most believing her teammate had lost already. 'But that isn't nearly enough to keep Naruto down.'

Kiba halted in his trek back towards his dog when he heard movement from behind him. "It's a pain to repeat it at every opponent I face, but," The Inuzuka boy turned around to see Naruto getting back up. "Don't underestimate me!"

"Get him Naruto-kun!" Asuna cheered her teammate on.

Kiba grit his teeth, "Don't try to act tough when you're bleeding."

"What, this?" Naruto wiped some blood coming from his mouth. "This will heal in a minute. If you want to do some real damage, why don't you come at me seriously with your dog or something?"

"You're going to regret that. Let's go, Akamaru." This time Kiba and Akamaru both rushed together. Kiba took out two smoke bombs and threw them at Naruto. The whiskered boy disappeared in the cloud of smoke that formed. However, almost immediately, Naruto came out of the smoke, right towards the Inuzuka. "Big mistake!"

Kiba took advantage of their close proximity and engaged him in taijutsu. Naruto couldn't do anything as Kiba used his speed to slash away at the blond with his claw like nails. However, he was caught by surprise when, after one particular cut in the chest, 'Naruto' disappeared in a poof. "Nani?!"

"Hey Kiba." The feral boy turned back to find Naruto standing a few feet behind him. "You shouldn't immerse yourself too much in one fight and not pay attention to what's happening in your surroundings. It could cost you or your comrades." Naruto said and held up a whimpering Akamaru by two of his paws.

"Akamaru! How did you…?"

"Hehe, simple; I sent a Kage Bunshin to distract you while I caught your dog."

"Bunshin..." Kiba clutched his teeth before relaxing and reaching into his back pouch. "Naruto, you will give Akamaru back to me." He stated as he took out two pills.

"Sure."

"Huh?"

Naruto threw Akamaru towards Kiba. The dog twisted in the air and landed on its feet near his master. Kiba turned a suspicious eye at Naruto. "I don't know what you're playing at, but returning Akamaru just like that is a mistake you'll regret."

The grin on Naruto's face stayed in place. "I'm just leveling the playing field. It'll take both of you to even have a chance of beating me!"

'Naruto is just being arrogant now. Is he that confident in his abilities? Or…' Kakashi thought and glanced at the only Sannin present at the stage.

"Don't get cocky just because of one successful attempt." Kiba warned and tossed one of the pills in his hands at Akamaru, who promptly swallowed it. Kiba took the second one himself.

'Food pills?' Kakashi wondered.

'Kiba's planning to end this now.' Kurenai thought.

"This might get bothersome for Naruto." Kirito stated. Beside him, Jiraiya just looked on over his youngest pupil, a smile on his face.

Akamaru's fur became red as Kiba crouched down and formed a hand sign. "Let's go Akamaru!" The dog barked and hopped on to his master's head. "Beast Mimicry: Half-Beast Clone!" The little red dog transformed into a more feral looking clone of Kiba, and the boy's features also changed to match Akamaru's.

"Here we come. Four Legs technique!" Kiba and Akamaru ran towards Naruto at high speeds on all four limbs. The blond dodged the first slash and jumped over the follow up. One of them immediately came back at him while the other ran up the wall. Naruto dodged the slice from the Kiba that came at him, but wasn't able to do so well against the one who launched off the wall, and ended up getting a cut on his left bicep.

'They're fast! I can't keep going like this.' Naruto thought as he did his best to avoid the back to back attacks. However, with every attack, Kiba was getting closer and closer to inflicting major damage.

"Naruto is in a bad predicament." Asuma commented.

And it got worse as Naruto lost his balance during a particularly tight evading. "I see an opening!" Kiba stated and dashed at Naruto. "Gatsuga!" Both Kiba's broke off the floor and started spinning rapidly, forming a rotating drill. They hit Naruto dead on and sent the boy flying high. The spinning duo slid to a stop just as Naruto fell back down.

Hinata gasped as she watched her crush hit the hard concrete floor, bleeding from his mouth and head. She heard Naruto's female teammate call out to him in concern, and her own teammate proclaiming their apparent difference in skill. But her eyes stayed fixated on the boy she admired. 'Naruto-kun…'

Naruto's hand twitched, "I can't lose here…" He mumbled against the floor. "I will become Hokage… I can't lose here…"

"Hokage?" Kiba asked, his tone and expression clear in showing that he thought of Naruto's words as ridiculous. "You want to become the strongest ninja in the village when you can't even beat me?!" He laughed. "Tell you what; why don't I become Hokage for-"

"Shut up!" Naruto snapped, cutting off Kiba's mocking. He pressed his hand on the ground and started getting up, much to the surprise of most of the onlookers and Kiba. "Your words don't mean anything, Kiba. Because when I'm the one you're competing against," He completely stood back up and looked the Inuzuka dead in the eye, "You don't stand a chance!"

'Naruto-kun!'

Kiba's expression went from surprise, to irritation, before he grinned. "Heh, persistent bastard, aren't ya?"

Naruto matched his foe's grin. "You haven't seen anything yet. The real fight is just beginning."

Kiba's grin disappeared and his expression reverted back to the former irritation. "Don't get all high and mighty, Naruto. Just because you got a little stronger after receiving special treatment and getting put under a Sannin, doesn't mean you can beat me."

A deep silence followed Kiba's words. Many eyes turned towards the mentioned Sannin, wondering about what the boy said. Though most were surprised when they noticed that neither the Sannin nor his squad seemed to be paying any attention to them, and instead were looking down at their last member with worry etched on their faces.

"Hey Kiba," An unfamiliar cold voice drew the spectators' attention back to the fighters. The first thing they noticed was the dark shadowed look in Naruto's eyes. And they were very surprised, as well as confused, by the words that followed. It especially piqued the interest of one particular genin. "Have you brutally murdered eight shinobi as your first kill?"

"What?!" Kiba asked in surprise, a distraught look appearing on his face.

"This is bad!" Kirito muttered.

Naruto stayed silent as he looked down at his right palm. The fingers bent together and formed tight fist. Naruto squeezed hard until his nails dug into the palm and it started bleeding. When he saw the blood, his face was suddenly painted with rage. "Don't speak of things you don't know shit about!"

The sudden outburst and the animosity in Naruto's voice made Kiba take an unconscious step back. The Konoha ninja where also taken aback by the sudden change in attitude.

"You have no idea what Kirito and Asuna have been through! You have no idea what kind of a life I've lived! You think I'm getting special treatment from being placed under a Sannin? You don't know about the 'special treatment' I've gotten my entire life by this village!"

Temari glanced at Gaara when she noticed him twitch.

Asuna turned to Jiraiya with a panicked look. "Sensei!"

"I know."

"I've busted my ass these past seven months so that I could protect my friends! Power wasn't handed to me on a silver platter! I earned it through pain and hard work dammit!"

"Naruto calm down!" The angered boy's head snapped at his sensei. "If you continue like this, things won't turn out well. You don't want that incident to cause you to fail a second time, do you?"

Naruto glared at his sensei for a moment. He noticed Kirito's gaze telling him to pull himself back together, and Asuna's desperate eyes begging him to calm down. He finally let out a breath and loosened his bloodied fist.

Naruto looked back at Kiba, who had stood in place through the monologue, surprised like many. "Sorry about that." Naruto said in his usual tone and grinned. "As I was saying, the real battle begins now. So you better come at me with full force!"

Kiba also grinned, "Heh, if that little speech was an attempt to throw me off, you failed big time." The Inuzuka got ready to attack again with his transformed dog.

"What was that?" Kakashi asked as he walked up to Team 12.

Jiraiya spared the masked ninja a glance before turning back to the fighters. "That's a state Naruto enters from time to time, when he gets reminded of the incident in certain ways. It's like his mind goes into unconscious disarray with the deepest darkest feelings buried in his heart."

Kakashi also looked down as he listened to the Toad Sennin explain. "It has occurred a couple of times before, during missions. We have been able to get him back to normal soon enough in most situations."

"Most?"

Jiraiya watched as Kiba threw a few shuriken at Naruto before dashing forward. Naruto dodged the sharp stars easily enough, but immediately had to worry about the two tunneling fangs coming his way. "The first time it happened was a real mess. It was on a mission to capture a bunch of thugs. We split the group among us to fight. During the confrontation, something one of Naruto's targets said put him in that state."

"What happened?" Kakashi asked as he watched Naruto trying his best to avoid Kiba and Akamaru's Gatsugas.

"…He slaughtered half of them before we could stop him."

Kiba and Akamaru slid to a stop after another attempt to strike Naruto with their current best move. The blond had managed to evade them just enough so that it only scratched his clothes. "You can't keep this up forever, Naruto." Kiba said and went to attack again, this time two smoke bombs at hand.

'He's right; I can't keep this up much longer.' Naruto thought as he got surrounded in purple smoke. 'Use my endurance to make the enemy reveal his tricks. First phase is complete. Now is the time to make my move.'

Two rotating drills entered the purple cloud and continued their relentless attack. They retreated back as the smoke cleared. Naruto was bleeding from his head mouth and a few other places. His clothes were a mess and there were bruises all over his body. But he still had a smile on his face. 'That is it. Everything is in place.'

"Still trying to act tough huh?" Kiba asked and took out another two smoke bombs. "Then I'll finish it with this next move!"

Smoke enveloped Naruto again. Kiba and Akamaru started spinning again, but before they entered the cloud, they noticed a blur escape from the top. So, the two went right through the smoke cloud and slid to a halt on the opposite side. Kiba looked up at the ceiling to find Naruto crouching on the stone using his chakra. 'I could still smell Naruto from inside the smoke. That means…'

When the smoke cleared, he saw three more Narutos standing there. "Kage Bunshin. Not bad, Naruto. My sense of smell won't be able to tell the difference between you and your clones. But you're forgetting one thing," Kiba gripped Akamaru's arms tightly. "There is more than one of us as well!" He threw his transformed mutt up towards the Naruto on the ceiling. Akamaru started spinning in midair, forming a Tsuga as Kiba rushed at the three on the ground.

'If that one is a clone and it lets Akamaru hit, I'll just have to finish off the real Naruto down here. If that is the real Naruto and gets hit, he'll be done for. If he jumps down to avoid Akamaru, he'll run right into me. Either way, I'm ending the match with-' Kiba's thoughts were interrupted by an explosion from above. He looked up in his dash to see Akamaru, now in his normal form, falling down at him. "What happened?"

"I see an opening!"

Kiba's head snapped forward just as he was tackled on his stomach by a Naruto thrown by the other two. The Naruto poofed away, revealing itself to be a clone while Kiba somehow managed to stay on his feet. However, the Inuzuka hire could not defend himself from the following attack.

"Futon: Air Bullets!" Naruto launched several balls of compressed air from his mouth. Kiba was hit dead on by all of them and was sent tumbling back as Akamaru fell onto the spot where he stood at.

'He can use Futon ninjutsu?' Temari wondered.

"This isn't like the Naruto we knew at all! What has he been doing this past year?!" Ino Asked in amazement.

'Naruto-kun, you're amazing!' Hinata thought with admiration.

Naruto walked up to Kiba with Akamaru in his arms, his remaining clone now gone. He squatted to set down the dog beside Kiba's head before standing back up. Kiba turned his head towards his partner with a groan. "What happened?"

Naruto had an accomplished smile on his face. "The clone I sent to the ceiling had explosive tags covering its body. So when Akamaru connected with it, the tiny chakra spark left by the clone's disappearance ignited the papers. Even with that rapid spinning, getting hit at that range with the force of more than a few tags would be enough to render Akamaru unable to continue."

"So Naruto can use his Bunshins as walking time bombs. He gets more troublesome by the second." Shikamaru muttered with a sigh.

Asuma chuckled behind the Nara. "Kage Bunshin really is the perfect jutsu for him."

"Of course, I had thought of other ways in which things could go." Naruto continued. "If both you and Akamaru had gone after the three below, I would've simply substituted with the clone on the ceiling, leading both of you to the same trap. And if it didn't work out at all, there was another way," Naruto took out a Kunai and spun it on his finger. "A Kunai would just bounce off while you're rapidly spinning. But if I attach a paper bomb on it, it will explode right next to you, disrupting your spinning and creating an opening."

Naruto caught the Kunai and put it back in. "Sorry Kiba, you lost this time. If you were facing me from ten months earlier, then you probably would've won. But against the current me, you stood no chance." Kiba stared at Naruto for a moment before chuckling weakly and closing his eyes.

"Winner: Uzumaki Naruto." Hayate announced.

"You did it Naruto-kun!" Asuna cheered from the railings. Naruto turned to his team and flashed a grin with a victory sign before jogging to the stairs.

"Wow, Naruto actually beat Kiba." Choji mumbled.

"Yeah, he has really gotten strong." Ino acknowledged.

"Asuna-san and Kirito-san have found a very youthful teammate!" Lee exclaimed. Beside him, Neji had a calculative eye fixated on the blond coming up the stairs.

'The Kazuto guy wasn't kidding.' Temari thought while looking at her younger brother from the corner of her eyes. 'He has even gotten Gaara excited.'

"Since when could Naruto think like that?" Kakashi asked the Sannin beside him while staring at the damage on the ceiling.

"Since sensei made him play shougi every weekend over the threat of no ramen." Kirito Said.

Jiraiya chuckled, "Yes, I made him play several matches of shougi with me every weekend. Later during missions, I tell him to come up with strategies like the ones he used for pranking and use them in fighting. He already had a different form of a strategic mind. I just used shougi to enhance it. Naruto may be thickheaded, but when taught right, he has the potential to learn even the most complex of things in his own way."

Kakashi turned his head toward the boy in discussion. 'Sensei, he might really be on his way to surpass you.'

Kurenai turned her eyes from the blond boy coming her way to her student being attended by the medics. 'There's nothing to be ashamed of, Kiba. He was a strong opponent.'

"N-Naruto-kun." Kurenai heard her only female student's soft voice.

"Huh?" Naruto, who was just passing team 8, turned around. Hinata was fumbling her fingers over a small container she held in her hands.

"A-Ano…" Hinata mumbled and gulped. She turned to face Naruto and timidly extended her arms, offering him the container.

'Hinata!' Kurenai thought in surprise.

Naruto looked at the ampule curiously, "What's this?"

"It's an ointment." Kurenai stated.

Naruto looked surprised. 'Again? In the first exam also…' "Why me?" He somewhat unconsciously asked. Hinata just blushed and failed to answer, so Kurenai smiled and decided to cover for her student.

"Just take it, Naruto." The red eyed Kunoichi said. Naruto looked at her for a moment and nodded before turning back to Hinata and taking the ointment.

"Thank you, Hinata. You're a nice person." He said before turning around to leave. Hinata's blush deepened at the compliment, and she didn't notice the glare directed at her by the person with the same kind of eyes as her.

"Well done gaki!" Jiraiya praised as he put the just arriving Naruto in a headlock and ruffled his hair with his fist.

"Gah! Let go ero-sennin!" Naruto said and squeezed out of the grip.

"You did well, Naruto."

"Huh?" The blond looked up at the silver haired jonnin who had spoken. "Kakashi…-san?"

Kakashi eye smiled, "Right, we haven't properly met before. You must already know me as Hatake Kakashi; I'm the jonnin leader of squad 7. Just call me Kakashi-sensei from now on, alright?"

Naruto stared at him for a second before he smiled and nodded. "Hai, Kakashi-sensei."

"I will now announce the next match." Hayate announced from below and the billboard started flying through names again.

"Congratulations, Naruto-kun." Asuna commended and Kirito gave a nod of acknowledgement beside her.

"Hehe, you guys make sure you win as well."

"Speaking of which," Jiraiya interrupted and pointed at the screen. All three genin turned to look, and Kirito smiled.

"My turn huh?"

Kirigaya Kazuto vs TenTen.

-x-X-x-

A/N: This chapter didn't go as planned. I was intending on finishing the preliminaries with this chap, but Naruto vs Kiba turned out longer than anticipated. I like to keep my chapters between 3000-5000 words. If I had written the rest of the fights, it would've surely exceeded 5000. Plus, the update would've been late. Thus, this is how it turned out. Oh well!

Hope you enjoyed! I'll be back with chapter 5! And if anyone's wondering why Sakura wasn't in this chapter, that's because she was taken away for medical care after her match with Temari.

Ja ne!


	6. Chapter 5: Weapons Clash! Asuna's Flash!

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto or Sword Art Online.

-x-X-x-

"I'm glad, Kazuto-kun. I've always wanted to test my might against your Elucidator." TenTen stated as she faced Kirito on the battle floor.

"You'll have to make me draw it before anything else." A smirking Kirito said and crossed his arms, making TenTen a bit annoyed.

"I see TenTen will be facing one of your students, Jiraiya-sama." Maito Gai said as he walked up to Team 12 and Kakashi with his remaining team members.

"Ah Gai. Yes, and if I remember correctly, according to Kirito, He was the second in his class and TenTen the third. I'm sorry to say this Gai, but even academy rankings aside, Kirito will win this." Jiraiya claimed as an energetic Lee greeted his students and praised Naruto on his victory. Neji just silently stood beside his sensei, outside the group.

Gai gave out a boisterous laugh, "We won't know that until the match is over. TenTen isn't that easy of an opponent."

Down at the floor, Hayate raised his arm, "Hajime!"

TenTen immediately jumped back, while Kirito stayed in position, arms still crossed. The girl didn't move after, observing her opponent.

"What's wrong?" Kirito asked. "If you don't do anything you won't be able to make me use my sword."

TenTen smiled, "True, I'm coming at you with no hesitation then!" She took out a few shuriken and threw them at the boy. Kirito blurred for a second and the stars landed next to him, seemingly missing their target. 'I missed?! No…'

"That won't be enough for Elucidator." Kirito prodded with a smirk. TenTen returned it while thinking of what to do next.

'The best course of action against a swordsman like him would be long range attacks. But I really want to go head to head against that blade… Ah screw it! I can get away if things turn bad.' With her mind made up, TenTen took out a scroll and unsealed two broad swords.

"She's going for close combat?" Neji asked.

TenTen ran at Kirito with the blades in hand. Kirito released his arms to dodge the first slash and the follow up. He continued to weave through the girl's attacks, making her more annoyed. 'I will make you use it!'

The attacks suddenly intensified and Kirito found it getting harder and harder to dodge. Soon enough, Kirito was overwhelmed by the girl and a cut appeared on his right cheek. 'No choice then.' The vibrating sound of metal hitting metal was heard. Kirito had his sword out, blocking one of the broad swords.

TenTen grinned, "You drew it."

"And that means you've lost this sword fight." Kirito returned and powered back the sword he was blocking. TenTen went for a slash from below with her second blade but that was also stopped by Kirito's. TenTen jumped back to put some distance between them.

'He's really fast with that sword, to stop my follow up. But I may still be able to overwhelm him with two swords.' TenTen readied her blades and went on the offensive again. She gave it her all, slashing from any and every angle she could, but Kirito either blocked or dodged every single one of them.

Running out of options with her broad swords, as Kirito didn't seem to be having a hard time with the assault, TenTen went for a double swing from her opponent's left. Kirito ducked to avoid the blade coming from above, while positioning his own sword to his side, successfully blocking the second blade. The boy spun, the two sharp weapons grinding against each other, and got behind TenTen. Tightening his grip on the handle, Kirito swung on a downward slash at the girl's left shoulder. TenTen, upon seeing the incoming threat that could possibly leave her with one less limb, instinctively brought up the sword in her left hand to block.

*Crack*

TenTen watched wide eyed as half of her blade landed a distance away from her and Kirito. The boy followed the example of the half blade and jumped back. He straightened up and held his sword in front, slightly tilted towards his opponent, the blade not bearing a single scratch.

"TenTen's sword… broke?" Lee asked in slight disbelief as these kinds of things were very rare when it came to his team's weapons specialist.

"That was the first time he actually attacked as well." Neji noted.

"Kirito-kun's Elucidator is made of a special chakra conductive metal alloy. It is several times harder than the normal metal used to make your everyday ninja weaponry." Asuna explained, smiling down at the boy.

"He's totally showing off though." Naruto muttered with a somewhat annoyed look.

"What are you going to do now, TenTen?" Kirito asked. "If you want to continue like this, I hope it is with the will to accept two broken swords."

The girl smiled, "I guess I have no choice." She took out a scroll from her pouch and threw the broad sword which was still in proper condition at Kirito with surprising ease, before taking to the air. Kirito block the blade easily enough as TenTen unrolled the scroll and started spinning in the air. "How about this?!"

With incredible speed, TenTen started to unseal different kinds of weapons from the scroll and threw them down at her opponent. Kirito smirked as he readied himself. He swung his sword to stop the first weapon, then the next, then the next. The black blade became a blur as Kirito whirled it around in front of him with great speed, striking away all the metal that came at him. TenTen finally stopped and landed on the ground. She looked up at Kirito and the weapons lying around him. "No way… you stopped all of them?!"

"Sugoi! Even with all the battles we've been in, I've never seen him move that fast." Naruto said in slight awe.

"You should come to more of our Kenjutsu lessons, Naruto-kun. Kirito-kun does amazing things from time to time." Asuna stated, her admiration for the boy growing.

"But to have stopped all of them like that…" Lee trailed of.

Gai nodded, "The speed, reflexes and precision required to do that, it's…"

"Of a genius." Jiraiya finished, staring down proudly at his student.

'You might be a formidable opponent for me.' Neji thought, activating his byakugan to watch the rest of the fight.

On the opposite railings, Temari was having similar kinds of thoughts. 'He's better with his sword than I imagined. Still, I could've stopped that girl's attack with ease. Show me what more you can do.'

"So? Is that all you have?" Kirito asked as he pressed his sword's tip on the floor and put his hands over the bottom of the handle.

"TenTen! Don't let the enemy make you go at his pace!" Lee yelled from above.

'I know! But damn he's good. With his sword skills and looks to boot… If Neji wasn't there, I might even...' TenTen shook her head. 'What am I thinking at a time like this?! Anyway, with what he has shown me, I guess I have no reason to hold back.' She took out two more scrolls and crouched down, placing them standing straight on the floor.

"She's going to use 'it' already?" Gai asked.

Kirito prepared himself for whatever was about to come as TenTen went through many hand signs. She stopped by crossing her forearms in front of her face, "Rising Twin Dragons!" A huge cloud of smoke exploded, two dragon shaped smoke lines rising up in a rotating dance. The smoke cleared to reveal that they were the two scrolls and TenTen leapt up between them. Like earlier, she started to release and throw several weapons at Kirito, this time from two scrolls.

"He can't stop that many can he?" Shikamaru asked as Kirito also, like before, started deflecting the weapons at seemingly even greater speeds. "Oi, oi, what's with this guy?"

"Impossible! He's still keeping up with all of them?!" Lee asked as Kirito continued to hold against the onslaught of steel.

"Kirito is from a family that has been practicing Kendo for many generations." Jiraiya started. "He has been handling swords, from wooden to real, ever since he could walk. He was actively learning Kendo by age 5 and Kenjutsu with real swords by 7. If that wasn't enough, even after he became a genin, he dedicated half of his training on Kenjutsu skills." Down on the floor, Kirito deflected the last of weapons while TenTen landed. "He was already a genius in Kenjutsu. With the amount of work he puts into improving it, along with his unnatural speed, he is becoming a prodigy among prodigies."

"I'm not done yet!" TenTen leapt back up and flexed her fingers. The weapons on the ground started moving and was taken to the air by wires attached to them. TenTen maneuvered them to surround her opponent.

'I can't deflect them all if they come from all directions.' Kirito thought as he glanced around. 'I wanted to save this for the finals, but I've got no choice now!' TenTen launched the weapons at him. "Ignition Blade:" Elucidator glowed orange as Kirito pushed fire chakra into it. "Burning Whip Dance!"

Kirito swung the sword in a downward slash. An extremely long whip made of fire formed out of the blade in an instant and started rapidly twirling around him, successfully stopping the weapons and cutting the wires controlling them at the same time. As the metal objects fell harmlessly around him, and TenTen landed back down, Kirito slashed to the side and the whip of fire disappeared.

TenTen looked up at Kirito with a frustrated look on her face. 'Even that?!'

"If that is all," The black swordsman spoke, "Then I will finish this now." Kirito seemingly disappeared from the spot. The next instant, a cut appeared on TenTen's cheek, and Kirito was standing behind her. "I could have slit your throat instead if I wanted to. Do you still want to continue?"

'That speed… He's at least faster than Lee with his weights on.' Gai thought.

TenTen turned her head slightly to look back at Kirito, and her eyes automatically went to the similar cut on his cheek. She let out a defeated chuckle and raised her hand. "I forfeit."

Hayate nodded, "Winner: Kirigaya Kazuto." Kirito smiled and placed his sword back in its sheath. He started walking toward the stairs with TenTen following him.

"TenTen lost, but she did well to make Kazuto-san reveal such a strong technique." Lee said.

"No," Gai disagreed and Lee looked at him with confusion. "Kazuto-kun only defended through most of the match, prodding TenTen to go at him. He went on the offensive only twice in the entire match, and both times amounted to only two slashes. From his last attack, we could see that he could've finished her off at any point of the fight. I'm afraid that TenTen was far outclassed by her opponent." Team 9's sensei finished, while Lee looked at the two coming up with a new understanding. Neji also had his eyes fixated on the swordsman.

"There he goes, stealing the spotlight again." Naruto grumbled under his breath as he slumped over the railing.

Asuna patted his head, "There, there, Naruto-kun. I still remember your incredible victory."

'Both Naruto and Kazuto have shown great skill and potential. I wonder what she's capable of.' Kakashi thought while staring at the only member of Team 12 that hadn't fought yet. Kirito and TenTen joined with the group just as the billboard started flashing again.

It stopped on the names of Gaara and Rock Lee.

"YOSH!" Lee exclaimed at the top of his lungs, scaring the members of Team 12. "Finally I'm up!"

"Yes, but let me give you some advice first." Gai said and leaned in, as Gaara went down to the floor using sand Shunshin. Lee saluted and leaned in as well. "No one has noticed it yet, but… that gourd is suspicious!" The green clad jonnin claimed, quite dramatically.

"I see!" Lee said and started noting it down on a note book.

"Don't write it down!" Gai said. "You have no time to look at it during battle! You fool!"

"I see." Lee said and noted that down as well.

"He didn't notice?" Kakashi asked dryly.

"Is Lee going to be alright?" Asuna asked in slight concern of how the duo was acting.

"Alright! Go Lee!" Gai ordered passionately while pointing forward.

"Yosh!" Lee exclaimed with fire burning in his eyes and jumped down to face his opponent; Gaara of the Sand.

-x-X-x-

The ensuing fight between Lee and Gaara kept everyone at the edge of their seats, so to speak. Gaara had revealed sand to be what he was carrying in his gourd. Lee at first had a hard time against the sand, which was automatically protecting Gaara, using taijutsu, which Gai revealed was the only way for Lee to fight since he couldn't use ninjutsu or genjutsu. However, after he removed the weights he wore on his legs, the sand couldn't keep up with his speed and he was able to land a blow on Gaara. But the Sand genin came up undamaged as a layer of sand armor over his skin was protecting him. This prodded Lee to use one of his stronger attacks, the Secondary Lotus, which dropped his opponent at high speeds. The match seemed to be settled at this point, until 'Gaara' turned out to be just a shell of sand.

After that, Lee was in trouble due to the strain on his body from the use of secondary lotus. Gaara was basically playing with him using his sand. It seemed hopeless for the green clad genin, however he somehow managed to dig deep and regain his usual movements to avoid the sand. Though since it still wouldn't do much against the sand protection, Lee was forced to open the third, fourth and fifth of the eight inner gates to use his last resort; the Primary Lotus. The flurry of taijutsu moves that punched and kicked Gaara around like a bouncing ball left everyone in amazement. Lee finished it off with an open palm thrust and kick combination that send the sand user rocketing towards the ground. Still, at the last moment, Gaara's gourd itself turned into sand to protect the boy. After that Lee, in his body's state, wasn't able to do anything as Gaara used Desert Coffin to crush his left arm and leg. The Sand genin went further and tried to kill the already beaten Lee, when Gai appeared on the scene to stop him, ending the match with Gaara's win.

'Lee…' Naruto clutched his fists as he watched the boy being taken away by the medics. 'You worked so hard and yet…' his hardened eyes went to Gaara who had just joined back with his team.

Gai came back up with a depressed look on his face. He didn't say anything, and neither of the group said anything to him, as Hayate announced for the next match.

Match #10: Dosu Kinuta vs Akimichi Choji.

Choji used his Meat Tank technique to conceal his ears, as his opponent used a sound based technique, and attack at the same time. Though Dosu countered by using the water in Choji's body to transmit the sound and end the match.

Winner: Dosu Kinuta.

"Let's see, the only two left beside me is the guy from Kakashi-sensei's squad and Hyuuga Hinata." Asuna mumbled as the billboard started flashing for the last time.

"Do you want to go through without fighting?" Naruto asked.

"No way! Even though it would be useful to not reveal any of my moves, I would feel unfair towards you guys if I didn't have to fight."

"It looks like you don't have to worry about that." Jiraiya said when the billboard stopped. The names on the screen read 'Yuuki Asuna vs Sai'.

"The guy huh?" Asuna asked as she looked at the remaining member of Team 7, a pale skinned boy with black hair, who was already walking down the stairs. "Any words of advice, Kakashi-sensei?"

"Sorry, I can't sell out one of my students." Kakashi responded. Asuna shrugged and hopped down to the floor.

"Fight-o Asuna-chan! Win this so all three of us can advance!" Naruto yelled.

The two fighters faced each other as Hayate raised his arm. "Hajime!"

Asuna wasted no time and rushed at her opponent with her sword drawn. She went for a stab on his left shoulder, but found her sword blocked by a ninjato. Seeing as her enemy also held a blade, Asuna decided to go for a more careful approach. Thus she pushed off the ninjato and leapt back.

"You know, since your teammate was such a good swordsman, I thought you would be a good opponent." Sai started with a smile. "But it turns out your just another kunoichi wannabe pussy who runs away at the slightest hint of danger."

"What…?" Asuna asked, slightly irritated.

Naruto, Kirito and Jiraiya turned to Kakashi, who rubbed the back of his head. "Hehe, sorry, he has always been like that. I've had Sakura go out of control a couple of times because of him."

"I bet your chest is like your Kenjutsu; all show with nothing real to offer." Sai continued with the smile still in place. "The breast plate makes it appear well developed, but you're probably flat as a board underneath. Don't worry though, I like ugly bitches like you."

A tick mark appeared on Asuna's forehead as she gritted her teeth.

"He's really starting to piss me off! And that fake smile is really irritating." Naruto said.

"Yeah but, making Asuna mad like that isn't a good idea." Kirito claimed.

Naruto chuckled, "Yeah, I didn't dub her as 'Berserk Healer' for nothing." Team 9 and Kakashi looked at the blond curiously at that before turning their eyes back to the fighters, where Sai was still firing off insults with colorful words mixed in them.

"What's wrong? Aren't you going to attack again? If you're too afraid to come at me, then I will go to you." Sai said and started walking forward.

"You've really done it now, Sai-san." Asuna said in a low dangerous voice with her head bowed down, making Sai stop. "I'll tell you what I'm going to do. First, I'll knock that ninjato out of your hand. Then I will wipe that annoying smirk off your face. And finally, I will remove you from this exam!" Her head snapped up as she suddenly rushed at Sai, pushing chakra into her sword.

Sai had just a moment to prepare himself as Asuna came in with a hard and fast jab. Even though the pale boy blocked the first jab, Asuna kept striking. The attack's being stabs and Asuna's rapier being longer than his ninjato made it very difficult for Sai to keep up. Soon enough, Asuna's blade went pass the ninjato, grinding against the blade. The rapier stopped an inch from Sai's body due to loss of momentum, but the girl used the position to twist the ninjato out of the boy's hand and send it flying away. Sai took the opportunity to put some distance between them.

"Impressive. Sai has been seriously training with ninjatos for a while now, way before joining my team in fact. To knock it away like that would require skill." Kakashi praised.

Kirito smiled, "I am faster than her in general Kenjutsu. But Asuna's striking speed and accuracy is superior to mine."

"No way!" TenTen exclaimed. "Even though you were that fast, she can…?" Kirito just nodded.

On the floor, Sai took out a scroll and unrolled it. He pulled out the middle wooden part to reveal an ink container, and also a brush attached to it, which he grabbed.

'What's he doing?' Asuna wondered as she prepared herself.

Sai dipped the brush into the ink and scribbled something on the scroll, before making a hand seal. "Ninpo: Great Beast Paintings." Three tiger like creatures made of ink leap out of the scroll and charged at Asuna. The girl, in her surprise, couldn't guard herself properly against the first tiger, thus got cut on her upper left arm. She regained enough focus to dodge the next two.

Once she was behind the beasts, Asuna quickly sheathed her sword and flashed through hand signs. "Suiton: Raging Waves!" She spat out a large amount of water at the tigers charging back towards her. The ink based beasts stood no chance against the raging waves and got washed away.

"ASUNA-CHAN! BEHIND YOU!"

'Oh no!' Even though Naruto's yell alerted her, Asuna wasn't fast enough in moving out of the way as another tiger came in, slashing with its claws. Although she got wounded on her side, without being deterred the swordswoman grabbed her rapier's handle, gritted her teeth, and kicked the tiger to the side with as much power as she could muster, dispersing it. Two more were nearly upon her as she took out her blade, prompting her to move on impulse.

"Sword Art: Dozen Flash Strike!" With lightning fast arm movement which only the jonnin and Hokage could follow, the beasts were reduced to two small puddles of ink at her feet. Before she could relax however, Sai was upon her with a Kunai. With the wounds slowing her movements, and exhaustion creeping in, Asuna was only able to defend against the knife that was one third the size of her rapier.

"He's not giving her any time to breathe." Kirito muttered, worry showing in his face.

"Asuna will be in trouble if this keeps up." Jiraiya stated.

"Come on Asuna-chan! You can't lose to a bastard like him!" Naruto shouted at his teammate.

'That's right! I can't lose to him.' Asuna thought as she blocked another kunai strike. 'I have to go through with Naruto-kun and Kirito-kun! All three of us have to advance together!'

Sai went for a stab at the left shoulder but, contrary to the usual avoiding or deflecting with the sword, he found his kunai halted by the girl's left hand. Asuna had used her hand to grab and hold the kunai in place. She seized the opportunity and stabbed her rapier into the boy's left thigh. Grunting, Sai clutched the hand holding the sword and forced her to pull it out of his leg. Letting go of the Kunai, the pale boy used his right leg to jump back a couple times, until he reached the heightened floor containing the giant stone hands.

Asuna fell to one knee, and Sai sat down on the higher floor, both panting. Asuna executed a few hand seals, much slower than before due to her bloodied left palm. Her right hand started glowing green and she started healing her wounds with it.

"Medical ninjutsu? That explains the 'healer' in 'Berserk Healer', I guess…" Kakashi mumbled.

"Still, this match has gotten pretty intense. Asuna's way better than I remember, and that Sai is putting up a great fight as well." TenTen said, well absorbed in the fight.

'Asuna managed to wound the kid pretty good and her own injuries can be healed, but still…' Jiraiya trailed off in his thoughts.

'I'm using up too much chakra. Even with his leg he still has the drawings, which doesn't seem to require much chakra. I need to finish this soon or it won't end well for me.' Asuna finished healing her wounds and flipped back several times, all the way to the doors entering to the arena. As Sai took out his ink and scroll out again on the other side, the swordswoman popped a food pill into her mouth and took a position. Her left leg was bent at the front, right leg pulled back with the knee slightly bent down, left arm in front of her chest and right arm pulled back, holding her rapier blade beside her face, pointed at her target.

"Whoa! She's going for 'that'?!" Naruto asked.

"It seems so." Kirito simply replied, but had his eyes glued to the girl.

"She's pushing a large amount of chakra into her legs and sword." Neji stated as he watched the girl with his byakugan.

"Whatever it is you are trying, I will stop you." Sai claimed as he unleashed another pack of ink tigers, this time five at the same time.

'Just try and stop me if you can!' "Sword Art:" She pushed off the ground and accelerated at an extremely high speed, in an instant becoming a blue blur with of the chakra leaking off. Within a second, she made contact with the beasts charging at her, and left them nullified in her path. In the next moment, she was upon Sai with her sword pulled back, "Bullet Blade Bomb!" With a super-fast thrust, Asuna released all the chakra she'd been storing up through the tip of the blade, setting off a big explosion in front of her.

All of the spectators watched in anticipation as the cloud of dust and debris started to clear near Asuna, who was still in the position with her sword thrust forward. The smoke properly dissipated to reveal Sai sitting with his back against the now damaged stone hands. His legs were stretched out, hand between the thighs and his head hanging down. There were multiple burns and bruises all over his body, and the hole on his thigh from Asuna's earlier stab was bleeding profusely now.

Hayate quickly checked on the boy to find him unconscious. He got up and raised his arm towards Asuna, "Winner: Yuuki Asuna!" The girl relaxed her stance with the announcement and let out a breath as Hayate called for the medics to come quickly.

"Wow! Talk about an explosive ending. But wasn't that overkill?" TenTen asked while looking at the medics working on Sai.

"That's what happens when you make her mad. She doesn't hold back." Kirito stated while Naruto cheered for their teammate.

'So only one of my squad pass. I wonder if any of them will end up facing Sasuke.' Kakashi thought while looking at a specific blond.

'Jiraiya has done a very good job with his team.' Hiruzen thought.

Down at the arena, Hayate was now alone as Asuna had gone back to her team and Sai had been taken away by the medics. The examiner raised his hand before speaking, "The preliminary matches are hereby over. The genin going through by default is Hyuuga Hinata. All the genin advancing come down to the floor."

All of the passing genin beside Sasuke, who was not there, went down to the floor, where Hayate, Ibiki, Anko and the Hokage had gathered. The jonnin senseis of the teams left at the point.

"Those who have made it to the main matches of the chuunin exam's third phase, all but one are here, so congratulations." Hayate spoke to the chuunin hopefuls lined up before him.

"I will now begin the explanation for the main matches." Sarutobi said and went through the clarification of how the matches will be held one month from now and why it was so. "So I want to let you guys go, but, there is something important we must do before the main matches. Take a piece from the box that Anko is holding."

The second phase examiner walked around to let the genin take one piece of paper each. Once all had one, she went back to the Hokage's side.

"Okay, everyone got one?" Ibiki asked. "Now tell me what number you got starting from the left." The genin told him their numbers one by one as instructed.

"We will now tell you the matches for the tournament." The Hokage stated.

"Eh?!" Naruto exclaimed in surprise.

"That's what we drew for?!" Shikamaru asked.

"Ibiki, show the matches." The man nodded at the Hokage's order and showed them the board he was carrying. The genin saw who they will be facing and at what point during the finals.

Match one: Hyuuga Hinata vs Hyuuga Neji.

'Perfect.' The male Hyuuga thought with a smirk while Hinata looked horrified.

Match two: Uzumaki Naruto vs Uchiha Sasuke.

'Sasuke right off the bat eh?' Naruto thought with a grin.

Match three: Nara Shikamaru vs Temari.

'The shadow user huh?'

'Troublesome.'

Match four: Aburame Shino vs Kankurou.

'Shit! I'm in the same block as Gaara.' Kankurou thought.

Match five: Dosu Kinuta vs Yuuki Asuna.

'I'll be alright in the first round. But, Kirito-kun…' Asuna thought with worry as she looked at the swordsman, who had an expression of both nervousness and excitement.

"So I get the big fish this time."

Match six: Kirigaya Kazuto vs Gaara.

-x-X-x-

A/N: Whew! Finally done! Sorry for the delay, college got quite busy after my last update and I sort of lost inspiration for a few days as well. This will happen from time to time in the future as it will only get busier for me. But on the bright side, this is the longest chapter of the story so far.

Hope you enjoyed! I'll try to whip out the next chap within a week. See you!


	7. Chapter 6: Begin Preparations

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto or Sword Art Online.

-x-X-x-

"Hinata-sama," Hinata and Shino, who were leaving the arena together, looked back when the Hyuuga girl's name was spoken. They turned around completely when they saw who it was.

"Neji-nii-san…" Hinata whispered in a timid, almost afraid voice.

"We are to fight each other during the final matches. But before that, I came to warn you," Neji spoke in a cold steel tone. "Give up. You are not suited to be a ninja."

Hinata's eyes widened while Shino's eyebrows knitted together, showing his displeasure.

"You are too kind. You seek harmony and avoid trouble. And you just go along and follow someone else's idea." Neji continued. "You have no self-confidence. You always feel inferior. That's why you thought it will be fine to remain a genin. But you cannot register to the chuunin exams unless there are three people. You couldn't refuse the offer from your teammates, and the truth is you were taking this exam unwillingly. Am I wrong?"

"N-No, that's not it…" Hinata protested. "I… I just, wanted to change myself, so I willingly…"

Neji stared at her for a moment before speaking again, "Hinata-sama, you are indeed a spoiled child from the head family."

"W-What…?"

"People cannot change." Hinata's eyes grew wide at the words. "A failure is a failure. His personality and power will not change."

"I think that's quite enough, Neji-san." Shino finally spoke, a slight buzzing sound coming from him.

Neji turned his eye's to the Aburame. "What does your intervening change? It doesn't make any difference to who she is. In fact, it further solidifies the fact that she is a failure who needs the protection of others."

The buzzing grew as Neji turned back to Hinata. "Hinata-sama, your fate was sealed the moment I was drawn as your opponent. You made it into the finals by pure luck. If you go through with this you will be hurt badly, and you will lose. A failure cannot defeat a genius. That is a fact you cannot change, just as you cannot change yourself."

"Who are you to tell her that she can't change?!"

The new voice prompted the three to look behind Neji. Who they saw was a certain spiky blonde haired boy wearing an orange hoodie.

"Naruto-kun…!" Hinata whispered in surprise.

'The guy from Kirigaya's team.' Neji thought, narrowing his eyes. "This has nothing to do with you."

"Oh I think it does." Naruto stated as he walked up to the boy. "Because your crap about not being able to change oneself really pissed me off."

"It is a fact. Hinata-sama was destined to be a failure, which she cannot change." Neji asserted as Naruto stopped beside him.

"She can change." Naruto said while staring directly into the eyes of the Hyuuga heiress. "Anyone can if they work hard enough for it. I was once the dead last of the academy. Today I'm advancing to the finals of the chuunin exams same as you."

Neji smirked, "Beating the Inuzuka doesn't mean you have changed. You were lucky to last long enough through the match to land a finishing blow. A failure will remain a failure. If we happen to cross paths during the final stage, which I doubt, you will fall before me."

Naruto stayed silent for a few seconds before he started walking again. He stopped beside Hinata, who was at a loss on what to do in the situation.

"Failure, eh?" Naruto asked lowly. "You know, Uchiha Sasuke, the one I'll be fighting was the rookie of the year and is widely praised as a genius." He put a hand on Hinata's shoulder, making the girls flinch in surprise, and looked back at Neji. "You say a failure can't defeat a genius? You're going to see it happen twice come finals."

Neji glared at him for a moment before smirking again. "You're an interesting guy, Uzumaki. We shall see how things play out when the time comes." The Hyuuga boy turned around and started walking away. "Just don't completely crumble apart when you realize that, you cannot defy fate."

Naruto, Hinata and Shino just silently stared at the leaving boy. When he was gone, Hinata turned to Naruto.

"A-Arigatou, Naruto-kun. You really helped us." The girl thanked shyly.

Shino nodded, "You have my gratitude as well, Naruto."

The blond rubbed the back of his neck. "Hehe, I just didn't like what he was saying either… well anyway, my teammates are probably waiting for me, so I'll have to get going." He turned to the Hyuuga girl. "Hinata, can we meet up sometime tomorrow?"

"W-What?" The girl stuttered in surprise.

"I want to talk to you about something, relating to what I just said..."

"W-Well, I… umm…"

"I believe she will be free around noon." Shino stated, making his teammate look at him like he'd just betrayed her.

"Great! Then come to training ground twelve at the time. I'll be waiting." Naruto said before waving and jogging off.

"S-Shino-kun…" A flustered Hinata mumbled.

The Aburame also turned to leave. "You are not going to make any progress if you keep hesitating." Hinata's blush grew at what the boy was implying. "Besides, this may very well help you in changing yourself... and I can somewhat see why you like him."

Hinata raised her head and stared at the exit Naruto had taken for a few seconds, before turning around and silently following her teammate.

-x-X-x-

"What took you so long?" Asuna asked as Naruto caught up to her and Kirito. They were currently walking just outside the forest of death.

"Sorry, just had a little chat with two of my classmates." He apologized. "So where's ero-sennin?"

"A clone just met us." Kirito said. "It told us that Jiraiya-sensei is currently discussing our training for the next month with Naori-sensei. We are supposed to meet him at Ichiraku's in half an hour."

"Naori-sensei huh? I guess it can't be helped with all three of us advancing." Naruto muttered while placing his hands behind his neck as he walked. "By the way, Kirito, how do you intend to fight the sand guy? Even with the Ignition Blade, getting past that defense would be hard."

"I still have my two trump cards." The swordsman replied.

"Yeah, neither of which you have mastered."

Kirito twitched, "One of them was in the verge of completion even before the exams started, and the other is halfway done as well. I can finish them within the month."

"And if you can't? It took you more than a month to learn what you have so far."

"Don't worry, I will definitely master them."

"I'm not worried. I actually wouldn't mind seeing your butt kicked once in a while." Naruto continued with a grin, enjoying not being at the receiving end of jabs for once.

Meanwhile Kirito was growing more and more irritated. "How about I kick your butt instead right here right now?!"

"Just try it and I'll hand yours back to you on a gold plate!" Naruto retorted. The two boys locked foreheads while glaring daggers at each other.

"You guys..." The dangerously low voice from behind them caused the two to immediately snap a meter away from each other. "We should hurry to Ichiraku's. It has been a while since the clone informed us of the meeting place." The voice continued much more cheerfully. A second later, Asuna skipped through from between them. The boys let out a breath and followed the girl.

-x-X-x-

"You're late sensei. Naruto-kun's already on his tenth bowl." Asuna stated as Jiraiya entered the Ichiraku's ramen stand, where his squad was already having their fill. The girl was seated in the middle with Naruto on the left and Kirito on the right.

"You can't really tell time with how much ramen Naruto has eaten. He practically breathes the stuff in!" Jiraiya said as he took the seat beside Kirito, who nodded twice in agreement to the statement.

"I can't help it if it's this good!" Naruto said before drinking up the broth of his current bowl. He placed it down before continuing. "So how will our training go?"

Jiraiya placed an order for himself before speaking. "Right, it has been decided that Naori will solely focus on Kirito for the next month as he faces the toughest opponent. Naruto and Asuna will be with me. However, I will spend most of the time on Asuna."

"Eh?! Why?" Naruto asked.

"Well, one main reason is what you showed during the preliminaries. Asuna showed two of her strongest techniques and her ability in medical ninjutsu and Suiton jutsu. On the other hand, you, Naruto, still have your Gale Boost techniques plus the Randamuken style. So it'll be best if I focus more on Asuna." Jiraiya explained. "But don't worry Naruto, as, for the time I can't spend with you, I will be teaching you a jutsu that would not only serve as a trump card, but also improve your chakra control. You will need to spend a lot of time training by yourself to master it. Thus, this training schedule works out perfectly, don't you think?"

Naruto grumbled but seemed to accept it as he muttered a 'fine' and went back to his ramen. The rest of Team 12 also continued eating, while having light conversations about how the chuunin exams had gone so far. By the time they were done, the total of finished ramen bowl count reached 26, with Naruto being responsible for 3/4th of it.

"Alright, that's it for today." Jiraiya said as he put enough money on the counter for all the ramen and stood up. "Kirito, you are to meet Naori at her place tomorrow morning at 8. Naruto and Asuna, you two will be coming to our regular training ground at the usual time. Make sure you rest well for the rest of the day, because you won't be getting much of it this month. Ja ne!" The toad sennin left the ramen stand with a wave.

"Guess we better get going as well." Kirito said as he stood up. The other two followed him and left the shop together.

"So what are you guys gonna do now?" Naruto asked as the trio walked along.

"Well, I've been away for a while so I'm going to spend the day at home with my folks." Asuna said. "Even though we don't get along very well, they are still family…"

Kirito nodded, "Same here. I think I'm due for another spar with Suguha. What about you?"

Naruto looked up in thought, "Well, I don't really have anyone to go back to…"

Kirito and Asuna glanced at each other. The girl nodded and Kirito turned to the blond. "Why don't you join me, Naruto? You know you're always welcome at my place." The swordsman asked. Naruto was a regular guest at his home on their off days. Asuna had never hosted him however, as her mother disliked him and her family's high standards didn't go well with the blond. Instead, she usually joined him when he was at Kirito's home.

Naruto quickly waved his hands in front of him. "No, no, I didn't mean it in that sort of a way. Besides, I have something I need to do before tomorrow. So thanks for the offer, but I'll pass this time." He said before he started jogging off. "See you guys later!"

The two just stared at the fleeting boy for a while before they silently continued in their stride.

-x-X-x-

(The next day: Noon)

Hinata treaded through the woods leading to training ground 12, the place where she was supposed to meet her crush for a purpose she wasn't aware of yet. For that reason, she had lost quite a bit of sleep the night before in thinking about it. Mainly over the possibility of the boy finally noticing her. Though her timid side continued to push the thought away as an impossible scenario, while the side that adored the blond kept her hopes up.

The Hyuuga heiress finally reached the training ground. When she entered the clearing, the first thing she noticed was a big man with long spiky white hair looking over a scroll with an orange-brownish chestnut haired girl near the tree line.

'That's Naruto-kun's sensei and his teammate!' Hinata thought with slight surprise, as she wasn't expecting anyone beside the whiskered boy to be there. Speaking of whom, 'Then, where is Naruto-kun?'

She looked around the field and spotted the familiar flock of yellow locks far off on the opposite side of the ground, doing something with a balloon on his right hand. She gulped and started taking small steps toward the boy.

Both Jiraiya and Asuna noticed the girl's presence and looked up. Jiraiya's focus immediately went to the girl's eyes. "What's a Hyuuga doing here? Wait, she's the girl from Kurenai's team if I remember correctly…"

Asuna noticed the direction the girl was heading in and smiled. "I think we should let her be, sensei." She said before going back to the scroll.

"Hm?" Jiraiya looked at Asuna before turning back to the Hyuuga. He also noticed what she was doing and his lips also curved upwards. "Your right. Let's just let her be."

'Darn it! Pop, pop, pop, POP!' Naruto kept repeating in his head as he concentrated his chakra into the balloon he was holding.

"A-Ano, Naruto-kun…"

Naruto looked up from the balloon to meet the light lavender eyes of the girl standing before him. "Ah, Hinata! You're here!"

The girl nodded shyly, "W-Why did you want to m-meet me?"

"Oh, right. It's about what I said at the tower. I'm not really good at explaining certain things, so I'll just get to the point. Hinata, will you train with me?"

"H-Huh?" The Hyuuga heiress stuttered in surprise.

Naruto scratched his head. "Well, I claimed that we would defeat Sasuke and Neji, so I thought we could work together to accomplish that… of course you don't have to if you don't want to…"

"W-Well, I…" Hinata mumbled as she played with her fingers. 'What am I doing?! This is the kind of chance I've always wanted! But, training with Naruto-kun is just… Ah! Get yourself together Hinata!' "I-I'd like that too, Naruto-kun." The girl finally said. "But I-I will only be f-free between 12pm and 4pm. I have training with Kurenai-sensei in the morning a-and Juuken practice in the evening."

"That's alright," The boy assured. "I'm on a pretty tight schedule as well anyways. So if you're okay with it, can we get started now?"

"N-Now?" Hinata asked before pausing for a second. "A-Alright."

"Great!" Naruto cheered and went over to a bag leaning against the nearest tree. He placed the balloon he'd been working with inside and took out a shougi set. He jumped up and picked two leaves from the tree before sitting down under the cool shade. "Come here Hinata." The blond said as he started setting up the shougi board.

Hinata, who was confused as to what her crush was up to, walked over to him. She sat down on the opposite end of the board when the boy gestured to do so.

"You know how to play right?" Naruto asked as finished placing the pieces on their appropriate spots. Hinata nodded and the boy chuckled, "Of course you do, here." The Hyuuga grew more confused as she took the leaf offered to her. "You must be wondering what I'm doing. Well we're going to do an exercise ero-sennin taught me that improves ones concentration and chakra control."

"Ero-sennin?"

"That's just what I call my sensei for being a pervert." Naruto waved offhandedly. Hinata raised an eyebrow but decided it was safer to not know any more. "Anyway, you should know the leaf exercise right?" Hinata nodded. "We're going to do that while playing shougi."

This time both of her eyebrows went up in both surprise and realization. "I see. Shougi is a game that requires a lot of focus. Playing it while concentrating chakra into a point to keep the leaf from falling…"

Naruto nodded with a smile, seeing as the girl had gotten the idea. "Yes. This, along with a few other similar exercises, has helped me develop my current strongest technique. I'm sure it will help you as well."

Hinata gave a smile of her own and place the leaf on her forehead. The two genin soon engaged in the match of shougi. The Hyuuga heiress found it very difficult to play while holding the leaf in place. It didn't help when Naruto added the rule where either would lose if their leaf fell. Before long, Hinata found herself losing badly to her crush.

"No need to be so down, Hinata," Naruto consoled the girl who had just lost to him. "I've been doing this for half a year already and you just started. You'll get better with time."

Hinata nodded with a grateful smile and Naruto started to place the pieces back in position for another game. She looked down at her lap and fumbled with her fingers as the boy did so. A few seconds passed with nothing more said so Hinata finally decided to speak. She looked up and opened her mouth, but before a word could come out, Naruto interrupted.

"Hey Hinata," The sudden serious tone in his voice surprised her. "I want you to honestly tell me. At your current standings, how much of a chance do you have of beating Neji?"

Her eyes went down to her lap again. "…I can't."

"I see." Naruto said as he placed the last piece on the board. He let out a breath before looking up with his signature grin in place. "Then we'll just have to make it so that you _can_ beat him."

Hinata slowly looked up as Naruto continued. "Though just training as hard as you can won't be enough. We'll have to come up with a strategy and you'll need a trump card to catch him off guard. By what I've heard so far, he greatly underestimates you. We will use that against him…"

Hinata stared at the boy in front of him in awe as he went on a roll on ways to prepare for her fight against her cousin. In all the years she'd watched him, she'd never seen him like this. He was so focused, he was thinking a lot more, and the level of maturity she could feel from him right now was far above the Naruto she'd known at the academy. The admiration she had for him only grew.

'Naruto-kun has changed so much. He has gotten even more amazing! And now he's trying to help me. I can't let him down! I will train hard and do my best as well. I will prepare to the fullest, to defeat Neji-nii-san!'

-x-X-x-

A/N: About how I use Kirito's name; Jiraiya, Asuna and Naruto call him 'Kirito' like a nickname as they are closest to him beside his family. Others call him either 'Kirigaya' or 'Kazuto'. And when I'm mentioning him outside of dialogue, I use 'Kirito'. I hope that clears things up. Just ask if you have any more doubts like this.

Hope you enjoyed. I shall return with chapter seven. See You!


	8. Chapter 7: A Date Before The Finals?

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto or Sword Art Online.

"Can't you just, notice me a bit more?" – Kirisaki Chitoge (Nisekoi)

-x-X-x-

Naruto found himself on a familiar rocky field. The same rocky field where his team had faced their worst misfortune thus far. The place where Asuna had almost lost her pride as a woman. The place where he had first killed.

'Why?'

Corpses were lying all over the place. Some with gaping holes in their bodies. Some with limbs and/or their heads missing. Each leaking the same dark red, almost black, thick liquid. He could see himself standing between the bodies, drenched in the same red liquid, and smiling.

'Why am I here?!'

The corpses began to move. They slowly started rising off the ground. Naruto's face turned to that of horror as the undead bodies started slowly treading his way.

"N-NO! Stay back!" Naruto flayed his arms in front of him in a vain attempt to drive off the carcasses coming towards him. His legs began moving back clumsily, and it wasn't long before he tripped over his own two feet and fell on his rear. "Don't come any closer!"

"You killed us." A chilling voice echoed through the field, not coming from any particular body. "You killed us." It repeated.

"I… I had no choice!" Naruto hastily claimed, his face a picture of desperation. "The things you were doing to Asuna-chan… You would've killed us if I hadn't done so to you! I had to do it!"

"But did you have to enjoy it?" This time the voice came from the other him who was now standing there staring at his bloodied arm with a blank face. "You enjoyed tearing them apart."

Naruto's eyes grew wide, "No, I-I didn't… A-And what they were doing… I couldn't just…" He tried to reason miserably.

"What about us?" Naruto's head snapped back at the new voice. He immediately recognized the new bunch of similarly blood covered moving corpse. "We were merely thugs. We didn't do anything deserving of death. Yet you killed us. You killed us in cold blood."

Naruto slowly shook his head, "No… no!"

"You killed us."

"No, no, no,"

"You killed us!"

"No, no, NOOOOO!"

Naruto shot up on his bed with a panicked yell. His eyes were wide, his chest rose in hard pants and sweat covered his entire body. It took about a minute for the blond to realize where he truly was. Once he did so, his panting started to die down and he buried his face in his right hand. '…Damn fox.'

After properly calming himself down, he closed his eyes once more and concentrated. Before long, he felt a pull at the back of his head, and the next moment he was standing in front of a giant gate with golden bars. Naruto glared at the darkness inside the cage, and soon his eyes were met with much larger red ones.

"Hello brat. It's been a while since you last visited."

"Kyuubi." Naruto stated. There was movement inside the cage and a giant fox with crimson-orange fur and nine tails appeared out of the shadows. "What's the big idea messing with my dreams again?!"

The fox grinned, baring its large sharp fangs. "I can't help it. There's nothing really interesting to do in here and it's fun harassing you."

Naruto didn't show much of a reaction beside a raised eyebrow. He had gotten pretty used to the fox over the several meetings they'd had during the last seven months. "I thought you said you liked watching me 'beat the shit out of other humans'."

"Oh, I do." The fox claimed. "But lately you've been getting beat up rather than beating others up. Your performance against the dog brat was pitiful. It was unbecoming of the container of the great Nine-Tails! Why did you put up with it when you could have destroyed him?"

"You know my principles about deception." Naruto said, crossing his arms. "I always lead my opponents to underestimate me and take them by surprise. It has always worked for me so far."

"First of all," Kyuubi started. "Stop trying to look cool wearing your pajamas."

Naruto looked down at himself to see that he was indeed in his pajamas, as he had just woken up. "Ah…" A sweat drop formed on his head as the giant fox continued.

"Second, when you actually abide by these 'principles' is only when you have the desire to. You don't follow them firmly enough for them to be called 'principles' at all. You hold back, show off or go at it in some other stupid way whenever you feel like it."

Naruto placed his hand over his face. "Argh, alright, alright, I won't hold back against Sasuke. Happy?"

"Honestly, it would make me ecstatic if you'd kill the Uchiha."

"Not gonna happen. What's with your distaste towards Uchiha anyway?"

"You don't need to know as of now." Kyuubi responded. "Anyway, I've got what I wanted. You can leave now."

Naruto's arm dropped to his side and his shoulders slumped as he gave Kyuubi the 'Seriously?' look. "You're treating me like a servant now?"

"I don't need to treat a lowly human as anything more." The fox claimed offhandedly as Naruto started to fade. "Beat the Uchiha and make it enjoyable for me. And one more thing," Naruto looked at him with a questioning expression.

"That sand brat is like you."

Naruto opened his eyes in the real world, and his thoughts immediately went to the last words he'd heard. 'Like me…?' He shook his head. 'Argh, my head's too messed up to think about it right now. Darn fox, showing me those nightmares and waking me up so rudely…' His thoughts trailed off as he recalled what he saw. He just sat on the bed for almost 5 minutes with an empty expression on his face, until finally moving and slowly crawling out of the sheets.

After getting out of the bed, Naruto groggily proceeded with his normal morning routines. It had now been two weeks since the end of the chuunin exams preliminaries. Life and training had been going relatively steady for Him during the time.

Naruto was soon done with his bathroom duties and he went to his 'kitchen' to prepare breakfast. Naruto opened a cabinet and took out one of the many instant ramen cups he had on him. He, still a bit drowsily, walked over to the stove and set a water pot to boil. When it was done, he unsealed the ramen cup, grabbed a cloth near the pot, and used it to handle the hot container and pour the water into the noodles. After that, he slowly started walking over to the 'dining table' to eat his 'breakfast' when there was a knock on the door.

'Who could that be so early in the morning?' He thought and turned around to go answer it, and ran smack into the wall. "Darn it! I'm supposed to be a ninja!" He grumbled as he held his nose and, this time more carefully, went to the front door. He opened it to find none other than his female teammate standing there.

"Asuna-chan, what are you doing here at this time?"

"Ohayo Naruto-kun." The Girl greeted. "Sorry to bother you so early, but I had a favor to ask you…"

-x-X-x-

Naruto and Hinata sat on top of a small lake playing shougi on a board that was made to float on water. They still had a leaf on their foreheads as this was a higher level of the earlier leaf-shougi exercise. Before, they only had to concentrate on the leaf while playing. Now, they had to focus on both keeping the leaf from falling and themselves from getting wet.

Unfortunately Hinata, for whom this was again a new exercise, hadn't been doing very well so far and had sunk into the water a couple of times already. Due to this, her jacket had gotten completely soaked and difficult to keep wearing, so she had reluctantly taken it off and was now sitting in front of Naruto with the, also soaked, form fitting black shirt she wore underneath. One could safely say that the redness of her face wasn't due to her catching a cold from being wet.

As per the boy sitting across her, he hadn't fallen even once yet, again putting it on 'half a year of practice'. However, currently his mind was slightly starting to shift focus against his will as his eye's kept darting to the wet body of the female in front of him. Until now, he hadn't noticed how well developed Hinata's was for her age, and for once his denseness was not at fault as the girl's baggy coat was found guilty. Not to mention he'd done some in-depth research on a woman's body to create the Orioke no jutsu, so he'd recognize a well maturing body easily. Though, no one needed to know that part.

'Come to think of it, this is the first time I've properly looked at Hinata, as in really looked at her.' Naruto thought, no longer particularly trying to keep his gaze away. Hinata didn't notice where his eyes were as her own were either fixated on the board or her lap. 'Those curves that are already showing at the right places, figure not so thick yet not so thin, and that swell… She's almost as matured as Asuna-chan. Maybe even more so in the chest areaaaAAAAH! WHAT THE HELL AM I THINKING?! I can't let my mind go in that direction! Curse you Ero-Sennin!'

Naruto shook his head vigorously to get rid of the inappropriate thoughts. Though in doing so, he lost the last of his concentration and fell into the water for the first time.

"Naruto-Kun!" Hinata exclaimed in surprise. The blond head soon rose out of the water and he flashed his famous grin, a slight blush dusting his face.

"Hehe, my thoughts wandered off somewhere else and my concentration fell." He admitted as he pressed his hand onto the surface using chakra and stood up on the lake. "We should take a break for now. It's about time we switched to in-lake spars anyways."

Hinata only managed a dumb nod as she was the one now staring, at Naruto's chest and abdomen. The drenched dark-blue shirt was firmly clinging to his skin, showing the outline of his well-toned muscles.

"Hinata?"

The girl snapped out of her stupor at the boy's voice. Though the clearness in her mind didn't last long as she looked up to see Naruto gazing down at her with his ocean blue eyes. The deep azure irises seemed to shine more than usual with the water droplets covering his face. His golden locks also looked a lot more stunning with the glistering liquid enhancing the color. Those, along with the rest of his current appearance just made him look, for the lack of better word… "Hot."

"What?" Naruto asked at the girl's soundless whisper. Hinata realized what had just escaped her lips and covered her mouth with both her hands, her face now completely flushed. "Are you alright? Your face has been red for a while now and it's growing even more." Naruto said, crouching down beside the girl.

"N-No… I-I mean, yes, I'm alright. W-We really should take a b-break." Hinata stammered as she quickly got up and hurried over to the land. Naruto stared after the girl until she stopped and sat down under a tree.

'Weird…' He thought before shrugging and picking up the shougi set to make his way back to land. He walked up and sat down under the tree next to the one Hinata was at. Neither said a word for some time, Hinata just looking down and playing with her fingers while Naruto swept his hair rapidly with his hand to get the water off. Then, the whiskered boy's head went up like he had just remembered something.

"Oh yeah, Hinata," Naruto turned his head towards the girl, who looked at him from the corner of her eyes. "I have something to ask you."

"What is it?" Hinata questioned quietly.

"Will you go on a date with me?"

Hinata just stared at the boy blankly for a moment, then steam suddenly burst from her ears and her already red face practically glowed. "D…D-D-D-D-Date…?"

"Yeah," Naruto said, defying logic by somehow being completely oblivious to the girl's reaction. "You see, Asuna-chan came to me this morning asking for a favor. She told me that she and Kirito had finally decided to move forward with their relationship. But they didn't want to go too fast so they wanted to have a double date to start things off. So, Asuna-chan asked me to ask you to come with me as my date for their double date. Get what I'm saying?"

"…Oh…" Hinata's voice sounded a little disappointed, not that the blond noticed, yet somewhat relieved. "A-Alright, if Asuna-san asked, then I'll go. You two have been helping me greatly so it's the least I can do."

"Great!" Naruto exclaimed happily. "Then can you come tomorrow around 5pm? You said you were free on Saturday evenings right?"

Hinata nodded. "Yes, I don't have Juuken practice on Saturdays, so I can do it tomorrow."

"Then it's settled. Meet us near the Ichiraku's at 5." Naruto said and Hinata nodded again. "Now that that's out of the way, how's your new technique coming along?"

Hinata smiled, "I-It's a bit difficult to teach myself, but it's going quite well. I should be able to learn it before the day of the tournament."

"That's good. But you will need more than just that to beat Neji from what you've told me about him. So I've decided to teach you a new technique myself." Hinata looked surprised while Naruto continued with a question. "Tell me something since you have the byakugan. How does your chakra reserve fare against mine?"

Hinata looked down with a finger on her chin. "Well, if I were to give an example of a comparison, I'd say that your chakra reserve is like the combination of 2-3 kages while mine is that of a first year academy student's… no, that may actually be shortening the gap…"

'Wow, I knew mine was big, but that big?' Naruto thought with surprise before waving his hand. "No, no, that's enough to give me an idea. And if it is like that, with the amount I can make, let's see…"

Hinata watched curiously as Naruto started counting his fingers while mumbling something. He was done after a few seconds and turned to her with a satisfied smile. "According to my calculations, you should be able to make at least five with your reserves. That is enough to use it against Neji."

'Naruto-kun can do mental math?' "I'm sorry, but what exactly are you going to teach me?"

Naruto's smile turned into a full blown prankster grin. "Something that can give the byakugan a lot of trouble if used right."

-x-X-x-

"Hey guys!" Naruto greeted his teammates with a wave as he arrived at the scheduled meeting place. It was now Saturday and the time for their double date. He was currently wearing a completely orange long-sleeved baggy hoodie zipped up at the front, blue jeans and black and white sneakers. Yellow locks covered his forehead without his headband to keep them up.

"Hello Naruto-kun." Asuna returned while Kirito gave a nod. Naruto noted the duos own casual clothes. Asuna had on a white expensive looking coat, which reached just below her waist, buttoned at the front over a pink long-sleeved turtle neck shirt. She wore a red and pink diamond pattern mini skirt with grey tights and brown shoes to complete her outfit. Kirito had a grey shirt underneath a black high-collar long-sleeved jacket zipped halfway up and black jeans with black boots. "Hinata isn't with you?"

"I told her to meet us here." Naruto replied.

Kirito sighed, 'Baka.'

'Baka.' Asuna followed the train of thought. "Well, we'll just have to wait for her I guess. Oh, by the way Naruto-kun, I forgot to tell you but Rei came back yesterday."

"Eh?!"

'What's up with that dramatic shocked face?' Kirito thought before speaking. "Don't worry Naruto, we already returned him to the Noble."

"Oh that's a relief." Naruto breathed out while Asuna pouted and crossed her arms.

"S-Sorry I'm late!" Hinata apologized as she hurriedly arrived at the scene. She was wearing a plain dark-blue sweater under a short-sleeved lavender shirt, a white skirt that reached just below the knees, and dark-blue pants reaching mid ankle with white shoes to finish it off.

"It's alright, Naruto-kun just got here as well." Asuna eased the girl with a wave.

"So, what are we doing?" Naruto asked.

"Hmm? Well, we're first going to grab some evening snacks at my family's sweet shop. We'll go other places after that." Asuna said as she started walking with Kirito. Naruto and Hinata followed and got into a position where the girls were in the middle with the boys beside their respective dates.

"So, how's your training coming along Hinata?" Asuna asked the younger girl.

"W-Well, it's g-good, thanks to Naruto-kun helping me so much. Though I sometimes feel like I'm h-holding him back." Hinata replied, whispering the last sentence.

"What are you talking about Hinata? I get plenty of time to train by myself, and it's not like I don't get any training while I'm with you." Naruto assured.

"Naruto-kun's right," Asuna backed. "You should have a little more faith in yourself. I can see it you know. You have a lot of potential, but your lack of confidence doesn't allow it to be properly utilized." She spoke truthfully. Hinata looked down but still nodded.

There was a brief silence before Naruto spoke up again. "So, who exactly took the initiative to move forward between you two?" He asked, looking at his teammates.

"Well, it was Asuna who came to me with the idea of a double date…" Kirito muttered, while the mentioned girl had a small blush on her face.

"Oh? Bummer," Naruto said dejectedly. "I was hoping Kirito had finally found some backbone."

The boy twitched, "That doesn't have much of an effect coming from a guy who's oblivious to everything around him."

Now it was Naruto's turn to be annoyed, "I already told you I'm not as ignorant as I used to be!"

"If that were true we wouldn't be doing this right now."

"…What do you mean?"

"See, that's exactly what I'm talking about."

"Oi!"

"Umm, is this alright?" Hinata asked in concern as she watched the bickering boys, who were now walking up front.

"Don't worry, their always like this." Asuna said with a smile. "They always get along when the circumstances call for it. Watch,"

Hinata did so as the older kunoichi walked up to the boys. She whispered something in their ears and they immediately stopped their little squabble, practically standing at attention. Asuna looked back at the Hyuuga heiress with an eyes-closed smile, which somehow looked a bit evil to the pale eyed girl. A small sweat drop formed on her head as she returned a nervous smile.

The four youths soon continued on their way to the desired destination. They soon reached the shop and after getting some sweets, consisting mostly of dango and cinnamon rolls, went on their way again.

Their second stop was a regular hangout place for shinobi below the age of 17. Hinata and Asuna mostly just sat down and chatted while Naruto challenged Kirito to the vast amount of games available at the place. After spending about an hour there, they went to the cinema to see the latest Princess Gale movie. Naruto, being a big fan, was completely engrossed in the film, sometimes going as far as to shout out loud at certain scenes, which almost got him kicked out.

By the time the movie was over, it was almost 8:30pm. Asuna had said that they'd split up from there on and go separate ways, thus Naruto and Hinata now found themselves walking alone together, no particular destination in mind.

"So, Hinata, what do you want to do now?" Naruto asked. "I've still got around 2 hours before I usually hit the sheets, but if you're running late I can walk you home."

"W-Well, I…" Hinata trailed off, a blush showing on her face in the moonless, yet starry night. 'Come on! Don't turn back now! This is my chance to spend some time alone with Naruto-kun outside of training! Take it!' "I… I still have some time…" She mumbled and looked to the side.

"Hmm," Naruto voiced and looked up in thought. In doing so, his eyes met with the stone faces of the Hokage. "Ah! Then why don't we go up to the Hokage Mountain? The view is amazing from up there."

Hinata also looked up before nodding, "Alright."

The duo continued forward, now with a proper destination set. Nothing was said between them for the next few minutes, which was creeping Hinata out a bit as it was Naruto who was next to her. Finally unable to take the, at least to her, awkward silence, the Hyuuga heiress finally relented.

"Ano, N-Naruto-kun…"

"Hmm?" Naruto looked at the girl.

"T-This might be a bit out of the blue, and also somewhat p-personal, but…" Hinata gulped, "D-Do you, l-l-like Asuna-san?"

Naruto was quite surprised by the question, especially it coming from a girl like Hinata. But his surprised expression soon turned into a smile as he looked up again. "I'd be lying if I said I haven't felt that way about her…"

Hinata's eyes went downcast and her head bowed at the words, however Naruto wasn't finished yet. "It is true; I did like her at some point of the time we've spent in the same team. I mean, who wouldn't fall for such an amazing girl after spending so much time with her. But I soon realized, before I even made an attempt on her, that it wouldn't work out in that sense between us. She'd always had eyes for someone else, and the closest she'd view me would be as a kid brother… So I gave up and those feelings eventually faded." His smile turned to that of a sad one. "It was the first time I gave up on something significant after I had steeled my way of life…"

Hinata bit her lip as she kept looking down. 'How could you just…?' "Sorry,"

Naruto quickly waved his hands in front of him, "No, no, it's alright. As I said, I've gotten over those feelings. Now I just want to see her happy with the one she does like." Hinata looked up at him and offered a small smile, which was returned by the blond boy. "Well anyway, let's hurry or we'll be late in getting back."

-x-X-x-

Kirito and Asuna slowly walked along a stone path in one of Konoha's parks. The place was empty in the night so they were alone on the grounds. The two were treading side by side, Kirito had his hands in his jacket pocket while Asuna had hers intervened behind her. The abundance of stars on the clear night sky lighted the park besides the dim light posts.

"…You really care about Naruto, don't you?" Kirito's question cut through the silence inside the park.

"Hmm?" Asuna asked, looking up at the boy.

"I mean, you went out of your way to arrange a double date just to get him alone with Hinata."

"…I suppose." Asuna said as she looked ahead. "I really do want Naruto-kun to be happy after all he has been through in his life. Of course, us being with him makes him happy, but we can't provide him with certain things. There is a kind of love we cannot give him. I believe Hinata is the right person to do so. It's obvious that she cares about him a lot, and I have a feeling she understand and accepts the real Naruto-kun. She will fill one of the last remaining voids in his heart."

Kirito looked up at the shining stars above, "Then… does that mean we can finally move ahead?" Asuna looked up at him questioningly. "You have been holding yourself back for Naruto, haven't you?"

The girl lowered her head with a small, somewhat sad smile, "I'm sorry, Kirito-kun. I knew you accepted my feelings, but I just couldn't bring myself to go to you. I feared that Naruto-kun would fall into the same loneliness he had felt before." She felt Kirito's wrist touch her own. She unraveled her joined fingers and took his hand. "Isn't that why you haven't come to me either?"

The face, still looking up at the clear night sky, now carried a content smile. "…I guess it was."

-x-X-x-

"Beautiful…" Hinata whispered as she stood next to Naruto on top of the Hokage Mountain, looking on at the spectacle before her eyes. The light sources of the village below, ranging from street posts to house lights, made it look like a starry sky on the ground. That, coupled with the actual night sky above with its countless flickering orbs made a sight to behold for one's eyes.

"It really is, isn't it?" Naruto asked as he gazed at the sight. Hinata nodded as she brought her hands up to her chest. "I used to come hear a lot before becoming a genin. It might sound odd since it's me, but I really liked sitting on the Yondaime's head and just, watch." He paused for a second. "I… honestly want to lead Konoha one day."

"I think you will," Naruto looked at the girl beside him with surprise. "I honestly believe you can become Hokage, Naruto-kun." Hinata said, giving him a gentle smile.

Naruto gave one of his own, "Thanks Hinata. You're one of the handful of people who actually believe in me." The girl looked down with a slight blush. A moment of silence passed between them before Naruto spoke again. "Ne, Hinata. This might be a bit sudden, and a little late, but, why does Neji treat you like that?"

Hinata's expression grew sad at the question. "It's because… his father died because of me." Naruto was taken aback by this, but stayed silent as Hinata continued. She told him what she knew of the incident that occurred when she was just three years old. How she was the victim of an attempted kidnapping, and how one thing lead to another, eventually ending with Neji's father, Hizashi Hyuuga's death. She also explained about the cursed seal and the Main and Branch family system of the Hyuuga.

Naruto didn't say anything after Hinata finished, just standing there staring at a distance with a small frown. Hinata kept looking down as the silence amid them deepened. Finally, Naruto spoke.

"That's why…? That's why he treats you like that? That's why he goes on about that fate crap?"

Hinata slowly looked up as she heard anger in his voice, along with something else. Something she couldn't quite put her finger on, until she met his eyes. Sympathy?

"Hinata… I've thought about this a couple of times over the past two weeks, and now I've made my decision." He looked down and put a hand on his stomach. "There's something I need to tell you. I think it will help both you and Neji…"

-x-X-x-

The remaining two weeks passed by quickly after that day. Nothing seemed different between or about the four genin, but how they viewed each other had changed drastically since then. Still, they continued training like they had before. Kirito gave his all mastering his new skills with the help of his Kenjutsu sensei, in order to take down the monster of a genin known as Gaara. Asuna worked hard with Jiraiya to build up her strengths. And Naruto and Hinata continued to train together to prove their ideals and defeat the ones called 'Geniuses'.

(4 days before the finals)

The setting sun painted training ground twelve in colors of orange and red. One genin stood panting in front of a tree, his bruised trembling right hand hanging at his side. Sweat rolled down his entire body and his face was a picture of exhaustion, but he still had the largest grin on as he stared at the spiral shaped damage done to the tree.

"I did it…" He said as he started collapsing forward with his mind falling into unconsciousness. Thankfully, his descend was halted by the strong arm of a certain sage.

"Yes you did. Well done, Naruto."

-x-X-x-

A/N: Whew, finally done! I see that this story reached a 100 follows with the last update. So in celebration of that, I'm going to take a nap. Hope you enjoyed the chapter!

Goodnight!


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